TEACHERS ALONE CAN
HELP MAKE THE SOCIETY VIBRANT – PRESIDENT KALAM
MODEL
GIRLS SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE OFFING
284
TEACHERS HONOURED WITH NATIONAL AWARDS
The President
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam honoured here today 284 teachers with national
awards on the occasion of Teacher’s Day i.e. the birthday of Dr.
S. Radhakrishnan. The notable feature this year was that among
these, 12 teachers were honoured for their outstanding contribution
in educating children with disabilities. This is the first time
the awards went to such teachers. The star attraction among them
was a teacher from Nagaland attired in his traditional dress,
receiving the award from the President.
In a brief
speech but with deep meaning, the President said that real education
is one which makes a person think ‘what I can do’ be it children,
teachers or leaders. Dr. Kalam said that teachers are great assets
of the country and the 5 million and odd teachers can really change
the life of millions of our children and transform the society
into a vibrant one. Capacity may differ but the teachers can make
the children able and productive citizens of the country.
In his address,
the Minister for Human Resource Development and Science and Technology
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi spoke of the series of initiatives being
taken to bring the differently abled children into the mainstream
of education and vocationalisation. Recognising the potential
and capabilities of such children, India is hosting for the first
time international abilympics (Olympics of the disabled) next
year and national abilympics this year. Schemes to enhance access
with equity are also being strengthened. Dr. Joshi disclosed that
development of model girls secondary schools is getting priority
attention in the current Plan. Secondary education is poised for
a big leap in terms of quality and quantity, he said. It is time
that we widen and enhance ‘teachers role’ and ‘teaching learning
process’ to meet the demands of children entering into adult-world
in the coming days. The Minister appealed to all teachers to be
valued partners in the development of strategies to meet such
challenges and changes. He also urged them to participate with
great zeal in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and make it a peoples
movement to serve the children who are the future assets of the
country.
Speaking
about the achievements of government efforts, Dr. Joshi said that
the literacy rate had increased to 65.38 in 2001 from 52.21 in
1991, the highest decadal growth. The absolute number of non-literates
has come down from 328 to 296 million, though the population had
increased during the period by over 180 million. Female literacy
also went up by 14.8 percent reducing the gap in gender-literacy.
Now that education is becoming a fundamental right, the responsibility
and role of teachers would increase. Of course, the role of parents
and the society will also go up. Each teacher needs to be perceived
as a "teacher of values" and values need to be reflected in the
classroom practices, processes, school management and the entire
school ethos, Dr. Joshi added.
