Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Delhi MLA Atishi sparred on social media following a visit of educationists from Kerala to a Delhi school.
The AAP leader had on Saturday posted on her Twitter handle about hosting ‘officials’ from Kerala at a school in Kalkaji, her constituency in Delhi. The tweet, with pictures, had the MLA claiming that the two visitors were keen on understanding and implementing the Delhi education model in Kerala.
Mr. Sivankutty, on Sunday, put out a tweet denying that the State’s Education department had sent anyone to learn about the ‘Delhi model.’ He, though, pointed out that all assistance was provided to officials from Delhi who had visited the State last month to study the ‘Kerala model.’ “We would like to know which ‘officials’ were welcomed by the AAP MLA,” the Minister said.
In the evening, Ms. Atishi responded by tweeting that Mr. Sivankutty should have done a fact-check before tweeting on the issue. She also posted the press release issued on the occasion that mentions that she had met Victor T.I., regional secretary of the CBSE School Managements’ Association, and M. Dinesh Babu, treasurer of the Confederation of Kerala Sahodaya Complexes to discuss the ‘revolution’ in Delhi’s education system brought on by the Arvind Kejriwal government.
Following Mr. Sivankutty’s tweet, the AAP Kerala unit took to Facebook to point out that ‘officials’ from Kerala was misconstrued to mean those from the General Education Department. Thanking the Minister for pointing out the error in the party’s post, it concluded with a note that the time was not far when the masses in Kerala would demand the Delhi model implementation in the State.
Two groups from Delhi had visited the State in March. One group comprising 32 mentor teachers had visited a few schools and the Thiruvananthapuram District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). Another batch of 13 comprised teachers from the Delhi SCERT and DIET, SCERT officials here said.