category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday flagged off the first batch of 36 government school principals for a visit to Singapore for upgrading their professional knowledge and expertise in education. The principals will participate in a Professional Teacher Training seminar in Singapore from February 6 to 10. The Aam Aadmi Party had ahead of last year s Assembly polls given a guarantee to people that the education system will be completely transformed in the state, Mann said. Today, the first batch of 36 school principals is going to Singapore and they will take part in a five-day training camp there. At Principals Academy in Singapore, they will learn the latest techniques in the education sector, the chief minister told reporters. The first batch will return on February 11 and they will share their experience with their colleagues, he said. This first of its kind initiative by the state government is part of the state scheme for teachers foreign training cleared by the cabinet on Friday and aims at ensuring that the professional skills of the teaching fraternity is enhanced, so that they can deliver the best education to students. The sole aim of this step is to enable the students of the government schools to compete with their convent educated peers and excel in life, said Mann later in an official statement. This training will further widen the horizon of teachers by equipping them with the state-of-the-art teaching practices, leadership skills, creation of teaching-learning materials and audio-visual technology to meet objectives of education in the post-pandemic world, essentials of strategic management, shaping school culture, building teachers professional capital, curriculum leadership, mentoring, and lesson observation skills, innovation in teaching and learning and effective communication, said Mann. He said the move will prove to be a milestone in reforming the education system in the state and help it become a front runner state in the field of education. Earlier, Mann had said the way the Delhi government schools have been transformed by the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation, Punjab will witness the same transformative process. We will send teachers to Finland as well. We will send teachers to places wherever new and latest ways of teaching are available to learn. We will also raise an outlay for education in the upcoming state budget, he said. (editor dailyworld.in)