Punjab CM sends government school principals to Singapore for training, calls milestone for education reform

Amid the row over Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s refusal to request from the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government to allow school teachers to travel abroad to attend training in Finland, the Punjab has Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday flagged off the first batch of 36 government school principals to visit Singapore for professional training.

The school leaders will participate in a Professional Teacher Training seminar in Singapore from 6 to 10 February.

Speaking to directors, Prime Minister Mann said the initiative was part of the foreign training program for teachers approved by the cabinet on Friday.

Before the Punjab Assembly polls last year, the Aam Aadmi party had given people a “guarantee” that the education system in the state would be completely transformed, Mann said.

“Today, the first group of 36 school principals will go to Singapore to participate in a five-day training camp. At the Principals’ Academy in Singapore, they learn the latest techniques in the education sector,’ said the Chief Minister.

“After their return on February 11, the members of the first batch would share their experiences with their colleagues,” he said.

Mann said the training would further broaden the teachers’ horizons by equipping them with state-of-the-art teaching practices, leadership skills, teaching materials creation and audiovisual technology to meet the goals of education in the post-pandemic world. “The pioneering initiative would prove to be a milestone for the reform of the education system in the state,” said the CM, adding that Punjab would soon become a forerunner in education in the country with these efforts.

The decision to send the teachers to Singapore for training came as the Delhi government was involved in a war of words with the Lieutenant Governor over sending teachers to Finland for training. The international teacher training program of the Government of Delhi in Finland had run into an obstacle due to the LG’s repeated refusal to allow 30 teachers to attend the programme.

Delhi government officials said LG had also asked the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) for a “cost-benefit analysis in tangible terms”.

Minutes after the Punjab CM Mann tweeted about the flagging out, his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal took to Twitter to subtly look at the LG. “The first batch of 36 principals from Punjab left today for training in Singapore. This is for the better future of the children of Punjab. I request LG Sahib to allow the teachers of Delhi schools to go to Finland for a training program. Why do you hate the teachers and children of Delhi so much?” he said.

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