Delhi LG declines approval to Delhi teacher's Finland training tour, Sisodia says; attack on education system
Jan 12, 2023
New Delhi [India], January 12 : Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena declined to give approval to the proposed training of primary teaching in-charges and educators of the SCERT in Finland and has asked the department to provide a cost-benefit analysis in tangible terms, as per an official release.
Delhi Government has condemned this move and urges LG to give approval.
According to an official release, SCERT has planned to send two groups of 30 primary in-charges at Jyvaskyla University in Finland in December 2022 and March 2023. It is a 5-day training program for primary in-charges of Delhi government schools and teacher educators of SCERT.
Under this, SCERT has made a budget provision in its annual plan and SCERT has been given a grant in aid by the Delhi government for conducting such training programmes.
Jyvaskyla University is Finland's top university, an international center of excellence and among the top 40 universities in the world in the 2019 Academic Ranking of World Universities.
"The file of in-principle consent and administrative approval was received by the LG office on 25/10/2022. He returned the file to the Chief Secretary on 10/11/2022 seeking three clarifications/objections. SCERT Delhi clarified those points and re-submitted the file to the LG office on 14/12/2022. After this, LG asks for two more clarifications and returns the file to CM on 9/1/2023," read an official release.
While tweeting about the refusal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "We have been sending Delhi government school teachers abroad for training, it has contributed greatly to Delhi Education Revolution; it is not right to stop them from going for training abroad."
Condemning this objection by the Lieutenant Governor, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said in a statement, "the LG says that there is no justification for this training and has asked SCERT to do its cost-benefit analysis. I want to ask the LG how the cost-benefit analysis of this training is to be done. Are the changes in Delhi government schools after this training - the wonderful atmosphere for learning, the excellent results of our children in board exams, and the re-instilled faith of parents in Delhi government schools, not the benefits?"
Sisodia said that the restrictions on such training by the Lieutenant Governor is an attack on education.
"After coming into power, the Kejriwal government sent its teachers for training to leading countries and institutions that are best in the field of education such as Singapore, Finland, Oxford Cambridge and IIMs. This initiative was taken to provide global exposure to the teachers of the world's education models and adopt them in their schools." He added.
Sisodia also said, "Due to this international training, the confidence of teachers and school leaders has increased, and they now look at education from a global perspective."
"Due to this, the board exam result of Delhi government schools has improved to 99.6% today. Hundreds of children from our schools are getting admission to IITs and the top medical institutes. Today, even a child from a poor family is able to dream big and get admission in the best higher educational institutions in the country" he added.
While sharing the related data, Sisodia said, "Delhi government has so far sent 1079 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 Lucknow."
