The Delhi government has “again sent” a proposal to the Lt Governor’s Office to send teachers of state-run schools for a training programme to Finland, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Friday, days after V.K. Saxena allegedly rejected a similar proposal.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also expressed hope that permission would be granted for the teachers to travel abroad for the programme.
The Delhi government had alleged that while returning the earlier proposal, Mr. Saxena asked them to first conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the programme.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on January 13 had described Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena’s refusal to allow an international teacher training programme in Finland as an attack on Delhi’s education model.
Mr. Sisodia said the L-G has declined to give approval to the proposed training of primary teaching in-charges and educators of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in Finland and has asked the department to provide a cost-benefit analysis in tangible terms.
“Delhi’s education model has made India proud all over the world. Instead of helping to make that education model more glorious, the L-G is focused on stopping the unique initiatives. It is very shameful,” Mr. Sisodia said. He added that training and exposure of teachers and principals to global best practices are important components of the Delhi’s education model.
So far, the Delhi government has sent 1,079 of its teachers to different countries through its various foreign exposure visits/training. Of these, 59 teachers have gone to Finland, 420 to Cambridge, and 600 to Singapore for training. Apart from this, to date 860 school principals have taken training in prestigious institutes like IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Lucknow.
SCERT, Delhi, has prepared a proposal for a five-day training programme for primary in-charges of Delhi government schools and teacher educators of SCERT at Jyväskylä University in Finland.
The Delhi government said that Finland’s education system is one of the most renowned and excellent education systems in the world and the SCERT had planned to send two groups of 30 primary in-charges here in December 2022 and March 2023.
It added that the file of in-principal consent and administrative approval was received by the L-G office on September 25, 2022, then returned the file to the Chief Secretary on November 10, 2022 seeking three clarifications/objections. The SCERT, Delhi, clarified those points and re-submitted the file to L-G office on December 14, 2022. After this, the L-G asked for two more clarifications and returned the file to the CM on January 9, 2023.
(With inputs from PTI)
