The Delhi High Court has asked for the opinion of the city government regarding a petition that requests guidance on filling the vacant positions of teachers, principals, and vice-principals in the city’s schools. The petition highlights that some teachers from Delhi government schools are planned to be sent to Finland for training, but the schools themselves are in a state of disrepair, according to an official statement.
The bench, led by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, has issued a notification on the petition and proposed forming a special investigation team (SIT) to oversee and investigate issues concerning school infrastructure in the city, as per the statement. The Delhi government was directed by the bench, including Justice Subramonium Prasad, to ensure that schools have teachers. Additionally, the government was asked to provide a response to the petition filed by four government school teachers within six weeks, the statement added.
The city government’s counsel opposed the petition and said there are no such vacancies as alleged by the petitioners and teachers are working in the Delhi government schools. The petitioners said the government schools are facing an “acute shortage of manpower” as 796 of the 950 sanctioned posts of principals and 565 of the 1,670 posts of vice-principals are vacant.
A person in a position of authority has asserted that sending teachers from Delhi government schools to Finland for training will enhance the education system in Delhi, the petition stated. However, the petition argues that this decision lacks objectivity as no clear criteria have been established for selecting deserving candidates, indicating favouritism.” The plea further asserted that there are “many dissimilarities” in the education systems in India and Finland and “rather than organising fancy international training programmes”, the government should focus on the welfare of the students.