The Delhi Teachers’ University Bill 2022, which ostensibly seeks to focus on preparing “quality teachers through world-class exposure”, was tabled in the Assembly on Monday.
Terming it the first-of-its-kind in the country, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, while presenting the Bill, said quality education was the basic need for the country’s progress.
Mentioning the need of a Teachers’ University in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “Teachers are the real changemakers in the evolving Delhi education model. We gave global exposure to our teachers by sending them to international universities and they completely changed the education system in Delhi government schools.”
Mr. Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said there was a need to prepare a force of teachers who can provide quality education of international standards to students.
The Delhi Teachers’ University, he said, will focus on preparing teachers of such a standard and will set “new standards” like IIMs have set standards for management education, IITs for engineering education and AIIMS for medical education.
The Deputy Chief Minister said there were talented teachers in the country but there was a shortage of training institutes.
The university, said Mr. Sisodia, will work to fill this gap and every year thousands of professional teachers will emerge from it who will, in turn, work to strengthen the education system. It will be spread over 12 acres of land, have lecture halls, digital labs and a library with world class facilities for 5,000 students.
Seats in the university will be increased keeping in view the needs of the teachers every year, he said.
Along with regular teacher education programmes, a one-year diploma programme will also be introduced at the university for those professionals who have a passion for teaching but are not able to pursue it as a profession due to degree restrictions, he said.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara (Amendment) Bill 2022 was also introduced in the Assembly by Gurdwara Elections Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam.
The Bill was presented to seek the addition of one more member to the list of nominated members of the DSGMC, taking its total from nine to 10 members. Head priest of Shri Akal Takht, Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, Bhatinda, Punjab, has been added to the list of existing four head priests of Sri Akal Takhts, who act as nominated members.
After the proposed amendment, the DSGMC would have 46 elected members and 10 nominated members, taking the total tally to 56.
The proposed Bill, as passed by the Assembly, will be required to be reserved by the Delhi L-G for consideration and assent of the President of India.
Opposition hits out
Meanwhile, the Congress said the Delhi government should discuss pressing matters in the Assembly session. Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar said it was surprising that the agenda for the two-day session was to pass Bills, which could have been discussed in the budget session, as the present priority should be to plan strategy to arrest the dangerous spread of COVID-19.
“The two-day Assembly session should not peter out to be a mere formality at the tax payers’ cost, as has happened in the past, when important issues were not discussed in the Assembly sessions. Mr. Kejriwal seems to have no time to tackle the issues of the Capital, as the he has been busy addressing political rallies and making hollow promises to fool the people of Assembly election-bound States,” Mr. Kumar said.
Leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri also sought to target the Delhi government over the rising COVID-19 cases in the Capital.
Mr. Bidhuri said that Health Minister Satyendar Jain himself had admitted that people coming from abroad were being tested again after five-seven days after going home, confirming Omicron in them.
“This makes Omicron’s community spread more likely. Does this not mean that the Delhi government did not keep an eye on those coming from abroad? Has the Delhi government completely failed in tracking and tracing and consequently Corona is now spreading again?” Mr. Bidhuri asked.
He also questioned why Delhi markets were getting overcrowded and lots of people were attending weddings.
“After all, what was the machinery of the Delhi government doing? Even now the markets are crowded and people seem careless. Is it not a complete failure of the Delhi government,” he said.
