Amid the ongoing tussle between the Delhi government and Lt Governor V.K. Saxena over sending teachers to Finland for training, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday interacted with foreign-trained teachers and underlined their role in Delhi’s education system.
The interaction was held at the Thyagraj Stadium and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who holds charge of Education, and MLA Atishi were also present. The teachers shared experiences of training they received in top foreign colleges and universities and listed the merits of such programmes.
“Teachers have played the most-crucial role in Delhi’s education revolution. Every Delhi government school is a symbol of change as ‘tent-wale school’ have become ‘talent-wale school’. Teachers’ training and world-class infrastructure changed the atmosphere and gave splendid results. Even our strongest critics agree that Delhi’s education system has been revolutionised; this was made possible because of the teachers, students and 2 crore citizens of Delhi,” said Kejriwal on the occasion.
He said that a “feudal mindset” has prevailed since long over the larger section of the society where they look at the underprivileged in a bad light. “They do not want government schools to be improved because the underprivileged go there. They don’t want government school teachers to get trained abroad.”
“You’d forget all the training once you left the stadium. But when you go on training and experience the labs of Trinity, the apple tree of Newton and the institute of Stephen Hawking, you’re learning for life. Seminars may bring you powerpoint presentations and speeches, they don’t impart life-long learning. Our teachers who went to Finland, Cambridge, and Singapore now have a lifetime’s worth of learning with them to impart to their students. We have shattered this feudal mindset step by step by sending our educators on such training.
“We won’t compromise on the quality of education in Delhi. If we envision to be the best, we will do everything to make it a reality. If private schools can send their teachers abroad for training, why can we not? We will facilitate the exposure of the best practices of the world to our teachers” Kejriwal told the teachers.
“It is unfortunate that in our country, those who do good deeds are often met with negativity and jealousy from others. Instead of recognising and learning from their efforts, they are criticised and their work is devalued. This kind of attitude is detrimental to the progress of our country,” he added.
