Days after Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit sought detailed information, including selection criteria, regarding government school principals’ training visit to Singapore, Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday announced that the second batch of principals will be leaving for Singapore on March 3 (Friday).
“As per vision of my CM @BhagwantMann ji to make the standard of School Education of Punjab world-class, we are sending second group of 30 school principals of the state to the world-renowned National Institute of Education in Singapore from March 4 to March 11 for Foreign training,” tweeted the state Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday.
From February 6 to 10, the first batch of 36 teachers, with majority of them posted as principals, in the state’s government schools underwent professional training for teachers at Principals Academy in Singapore. On their return, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal welcomed them on February 11.
Couple of days later, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit had asked the Chief Minister to furnish information regarding “criteria and details” of selecting Principals for their training in Singapore, besides details of total expenditure incurred on the same.
“The complainants point out certain malpractices and illegalities in the selection of these principals. Allegation is that there is no transparency,” he had pointed out, in a strongly-worded letter addressed to the Chief Minister.
In the letter, Purohit raised several other issues, following which the war of words between the two escalated with the Chief Minister declaring that his Government was answerable to the people of Punjab and not to “any person appointed by the Centre”.
The slugfest between the two is expected to come to an end with the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, making it clear that the Chief Minister is constitutionally duty-bound to furnish any information sought by the Governor, and similarly, the Governor is also duty bound to act on the advice of the Cabinet to convene the assembly session. The apex court was hearing the State Government’s plea against Governor’s virtual refusal to convene the assembly’s budget session.
In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party-led State Government is struggling to send teachers for traisning abroad. Reportedly, Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena is yet to give nod to the Government’s request to allow teachers of city government-run schools to visit Finland for a training programme.
Punjab School Education Department will dispatch the second batch of 30 principals of state government schools to Singapore on March 3.
