Only two teachers from Ludhiana district selected for training in Finland

Just two teachers have been chosen from Ludhiana for the three-week training in Finland regarding which an MoU was signed by Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains in Delhi recently. Incidentally, Ludhiana happens to be the largest district of Punjab with the maximum number of government primary schools.

The two selected teachers are Manpreet Singh from Government Primary School, Bodal Wala, and Manmeet Pal Grewal from Government Primary School, Umra. The other 70 teachers, who had been selected, are from other districts of the state. The maximum participation was witnessed from smaller districts such as Fazilka, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib and Muktsar.

When asked about the reasons for such low participation of teachers from the district in this training programme, District Education Officer (Elementary) Ravinder Kaur said just 24 teachers from government primary schools in Ludhiana had applied for the training in Finland as per the conditions laid down by the department.

“Of these 24 applicants, 2-3 teachers did not come while 10-15 applications were withdrawn citing one reason or the other. In total, we had nine applications which fulfilled the criteria of the government and all these applications were recommended to the Education Department. Out of nine, two teachers were selected by the department, who will now be going for the training,” said the DEO.

It may be mentioned that points were to be given by the department as per different criteria, including 10 years, 15 years and 20 years of service experience as a teacher. Points were also to be given for qualification and if the teacher had got any national, state, district or block-level award or if he/she had done an additional course in teaching etc. The recommendation of parents and students was also there but more importance was given to other points. The Education Department had received a total of 600 applications online of which just 72 teachers were selected from all over Punjab for the training which will start on October 21 and continue till November 11. The three-week training will be held at the University of Turku, Finland. Amandeep Kaur, Assistant Director, SCERT and Bindu Gulhati will accompany the batch as officer in-charge.

24 applied, around 10 applications withdrawn

DEO (Elementary) Ravinder Kaur said only 24 teachers from government primary schools in Ludhiana had applied for the training in Finland as per the conditions laid down by the department. “Of the 24 applicants, 2-3 teachers did not come while 10-15 applications were withdrawn, citing one reason or the other. In total, we had nine applications which fulfilled the criteria and these were recommended to the Education Department. Of nine, two teachers were selected by the department, who will now be going for the training,” she said.