A second batch of principals of the state run schools in Punjab will leave for Singapore on March 4 for training, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains Thursday said, the move coming in the backdrop of a “letter war” between the Aam Aadmi Party government and the Raj Bhavan, which also reached the Supreme Court. “To make standard of school education of Punjab world class, we are sending second group of 30 school principals to the world renowned National Institute of Education in Singapore from March 4 to March 11 for foreign training,” Bains said in a tweet. He credited the move to the “vision of my Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann”. The group will be led by Karamjit Kaur Baath, assistant director in the office of DPI (SE), as per the order issued by Jaspreet Talwar, principal secretary, department of school education. Earlier, a group of 36 teachers, majority of them posted as principals, from government schools of Punjab underwent professional training at Principals Academy, Singapore, from February 6-10. Maninder Singh Sarkaria, director of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) had led the group. When they returned to Delhi on February 11, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Mann had welcomed them. After their return, Governor Banwarilal Purohit on February 13 wrote to Mann questioning the selection criteria adopted by the education department to select teachers sent to Singapore for training. Purohit wrote that “complaints were received pointing to certain malpractices and illegalities in the selection process” and that there was “no transparency” in the procedure. He has asked Mann to send him details of the criteria adopted to select the principals. The row escalated after Mann replied to Purohit that he was answerable only to 3 crore Punjabis who elected him, not to a Governor appointed by the Centre. Mann had responded that he was only answerable to three crore Punjabis, not to the Governor and also questioned the Centre's criteria for appointing governors. Purohit had called Mann's replies not only "patently unconstitutional but extremely derogatory".
