Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu launched the ‘International Tour for Teachers’ programme here on Thursday.

In the first batch, 102 teachers selected from across the state are being sent on a five-day tour to Singapore on February 24.

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The Chief Minister also provided foreign tour kits to the selected teachers.

On March 15, the second batch of 98 teachers will be sent on tour abroad.

“During their exposure visit abroad, the teachers would get an opportunity to be familiar with new technologies in the education sector besides being acquainted with new methods of teaching and education which would ensure better coordination between teachers and students,” the Chief Minister said.

Himachal’s ranking has adversely lowered to 18th position in terms of providing qualitative education due to the lack of interest of the previous government, he charged, adding that the present government was making every possible effort to improve the standard of education so that the students could become competent to meet the future challenges.

He said that the Rajiv Gandhi Day-Boarding Schools being opened in the state were a unique initiative towards providing qualitative education and in the coming ten years, these would emerge as the best schools, where along with education, all other adequate facilities would be available.

The Chief Minister said that English medium education would be introduced from Class 1 in government schools in the next academic session.

The Chief Minister further said that the vision of self-reliant Himachal has been presented in the second budget of the congress government, which would yield positive results in the next few years.

Himachal will move forward on the path of progress with new policies and a few tough decisions, which will be fruitful in times to come.

He said that the state government has announced a four per cent dearness allowance to its employees.

“Old pension has also been restored, benefiting lakhs of government employees. Also, the state government has announced to provide LTC facility to the state employees at least twice during their service period from the next financial year,” he said.

Education Minister Rohit Thakur said, “Today is a historic day as the first batch of teachers embarks on an exposure visit abroad. This will give teachers an opportunity to learn new methods of education.”

He said that since the formation of the present government, concrete efforts have been made to improve the quality of education.

The state government is filling the vacant posts in the education department on a priority basis to ensure quality education in government schools, he remarked.