When Pranab Mukherjee was the President he gave a lesson to students of Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya on Teachers’ Day on the history of Bharatiya politics. On Teachers’ Day it is worth mentioning that many of our Presidents were teachers before they became Presidents.
September 5th which happens to be the birthday of former President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is celebrated as Teachers’ Day to honor the contribution made by the teachers to society. President Pranab Mukherjee was a college teacher before he became President.
Rajendra Prasad, the first President of Republic India, was professor at the Langat Singh College in Muzaffarpur. Now the latest to join this list is our current President Droupadi Murmu who started off as a Primary teacher and has now become President.
On Teachers’ Day, our leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, spiritual gurus should address students in classrooms. They should motivate students to achieve their aspirations. They should also address teachers to know their grievances.
Vineet Nayar who runs the NGO SAMPARK, in an interview with the Indian Express mentions that the National Achievement Survey has shown a dip in learning levels across grades compared to 2017. He says that classrooms seem to add very little to learning outcomes. Non Academic work like election duty, record keeping disable teachers from performing academic work. The need of the hour is to enable teachers to perform their duties efficiently, said Vineet Nayar.
Philosophers, scientists, thinkers should speak to the students of the struggle, hardships which they faced in life to reach their present positions. Lal Bahadur Shastri, Bharat’s second Prime Minister used to swim to and fro from school as he could not afford a ferry ride due to his poor financial condition. Our present President Droupadi Murmu had to face personal tragedies before she became President. In just six years she lost her husband, two sons, mother and brother. But she did not let these adversities affect her. She practiced meditation techniques which helped her to remain calm during crisis.
During examinations when students are stressed out, they should emulate President Murmu and practice meditation techniques which she did. There is this perception that the present day youth don’t have a credible role model to fall back on.
When our leaders become teachers on Teachers’ Day and reach out to the students through a question and answer session, trying to understand their fears and anxieties and instill self confidence in the youth they are filling up the vacuum of the youth of not having a role model to emulate.
Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one of his addresses to students on Teachers’ Day said that people with high professional achievements and in professions like doctors and engineers should teach school students at least for one period a week. ”A student,” said Prime Minister Modi, ”is a representative of his teacher, he is a canvas painted by his teacher. Our future lies in our youth reaching out to them on Teachers’ Day is taking a step forward in Nation Building.”
-by Indira Satyanarayan
