Plea before Delhi High Court alleges favouritism in selecting teachers for foreign training programmes; seeks guidelines

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Delhi Government and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on a plea seeking guidelines for sending teachers to foreign countries for training programmes. .The public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a group of teachers alleged that such training programmes are leisure trips for teachers who are “blue eyed candidates” and they are selected without any specific criteria.A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the authorities to file their replies within six weeks. .The petitioners said that a comprehensive policy is needed, keeping in mind the cost-benefit analysis rather than an arbitrary and unreasonable decision, before sending the teachers to other countries for the purpose of training.The petition referred to a recent decision by the Delhi government wherein it has decided to send some teachers to Finland.The plea said that the government’s decision was based completely on "favouritism, as no established criteria has been set out for the selection of deserving candidates." “Even otherwise, the education system in India as compared to Finland is distinct and has many dissimilarities, therefore no purpose would be solved by sending teachers for training programmes. A difference can easily be made out as in Finland as compared to India- there are no mandated standardized tests, apart from one exam at the end of senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparison or competition among the students, schools or regions. The training programmes are leisure trips for the teachers- who are “blue eyed candidates” being shortlisted based on- no specific criteria or necessary evaluation of performance,” the petition said.It added,“The Respondent rather than organising fancy international training programmes should focus on the welfare of the students by taking efficient steps towards the apparent irregularities which are adversely affecting the basic education system in the capital.”.The plea said that there is an urgent need for better infrastructure in government schools in Delhi, which are in a deplorable condition and several posts of teachers, principals and vice-principals are also lying vacant.It, therefore, sought directions for filling up of vacancies as well as a direction that all government schools in the national capital provide streams of science, arts and commerce to students.The petition also prayed for the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to monitor and enquire into the issue related to the infrastructure in state-run schools..Advocate Santosh Tripathi appeared for the Delhi government and challenged the assertions made in the PIL. Tripathi said that there are no vacancies of vice-principals in the government schools and even for other posts, interviews have happened.He further said that the government is taking steps to fill up the rest of the vacancies and guest teachers have also been appointed..However, the bench asked Tripathi to file his response and orally remarked that the teachers should be appointed.“Ensure that teachers are there. Teachers should be there,” the Chief Justice said..Senior Advocate Kirti Uppal appeared for the petitioners. The plea was filed through advocates Jyoti Taneja and Aastha Gupta.