60 Delhi govt school principals to go to Cambridge in October

 60 Delhi govt school principals to go to Cambridge in October

·         So far 119 principals have been to Cambridge since February 2015

·         Deputy CM appeals to principals to learn about autonomy and accountability  

Delhi government is sending 60 principals of its government schools to the prestigious Cambridge University for Leadership Programme training this month, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, Shri Manish Sisodia announced on Monday.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the principals will be sent in two batches of 30 each.

The first batch will be at Cambridge between October 8 and 17. The training for the next batch will be from 19^th to 28^th October.

Addressing the principals, Shri Sisodia said the Delhi government has increased it teachers training budget more than 11 times from Rs nine crore to Rs 102 crore.

After the improvement in infrastructure in Delhi government schools, the next desire of the society and parents is that children studying in government schools should get world class education, therefore an important step in this direction is that teachers should be trained at the best level, Mr Sisodia said.

“Teachers should have first hand experience of best education practices of the world and it is with this perspective that our government stresses on teachers training at best institutes of the world,” Mr Sisodia said.

Recalling what teachers training meant when he had taken over as Education Minister of Delhi, Shri Sisodia said at that time it was widely thought training meant attending seminars and there was no concept of teachers training, however, now meaningless seminars have been replaced by real training.

He also touched upon the obstacles in arranging the international training programmes for government schools teachers and principals. “The system has shown resistance to this initiative of sending you to premier institutes across the world. The only way to beat that resistance is to make your visit meaningful by learning from best practices across the world. Let’s ensure that no decision by any Education Minister faces resistance to send educationists for such exposures, and that can happen only if there is visible change in your schools after your learnings. We fundamentally believe that unless teachers & principals are not exposed to world class education, we cannot expect the same or better from them,” Mr Sisodia said.

Shri Sisodia appealed to the principals not to confine themselves to merely training seekers at Cambridge, but as Education Administrators, and should understand the administrative functioning also.

“My suggestion is go with prior preparation, be properly prepared and be completely focused during your training tenure,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.

“All of you are being sent on tax payers money, therefore in return I expect you to be harbingers of change in making Delhi government schools education world class. This will be a great service,” Mr Sisodia said.

The Deputy Chief Minister told the principals they would get a chance to visit schools there and they should form an understanding about the autonomy and accountability of schools.

“I am in favour that schools and heads of schools should be given complete autonomy, the autonomy however, comes with accountability. I would like to know your views about autonomy and accountability there,” Mr Sisodia said.

Mentioning about the School Management Committees (SMCs), Mr Sisodia asked the principals to learn about the concept, role and decision making abilities of such committees in the United Kingdom.

Mr Sisodia encouraged the teachers and principals to be active on social media platforms. “Please share your Cambridge experiences on Facebook and Twitter. This will help your colleagues and other teachers across the country to pick up best education practices across the world,” he said.

During last three and a half years, Delhi government has been consistently and regularly sending teachers and principals for world class training to the best institutes of the world.

So far, 119 Delhi government school principals have attended the 10-day Inspiring Leadership Improving Performance at Cambridge.