SPEECH
BY SHRI K. R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE PRESENTATION OF NATIONAL
AWARDS TO TEACHERS - 1996
NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1997
On this
auspicious occasion I have the honour to extend my greetings to the countless
teachers throughout the country and pay my tribute to the devotion and
dedication with which they have been imparting education to our young
people and preparing them for the responsibilities and the struggles of
life. I particularly congratulate all the award winning teachers from
the States and Union Territories of our vast country who are gathered
here. It is fitting that we are honouring meritorious teachers on the
birth anniversary of the philosopher-statesman, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan,
a man steeped in the thought and wisdom of our civilization and who had
drunk deep at the springs of Western learning and philosophy. He was a
true "acharya" in the Indian tradition and also a colossal scholar
in the Western sense of the term. By felicitating our teachers on his
birth-day we are paying homage to the contributions he made to India and
to the fund of human knowledge.
This
award ceremony on Teachers Day focuses attention on the role of teachers
in society, their contributions to the building of new India and the concerns
and the problems they encounter in the discharge of the sacred duties
entrusted to them by the nation. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal
Nehru, had emphasized the supreme importance of "investment in man"
for the development of the country. He had said: "Let us remember
that the school is essentially the teacher, not the building . . . . .
. It is the teacher that counts, and everything else is secondary. If
we want good teachers, we have to give them amenities of life, and we
have to give them something that is even more valuable, the respect due
to a person who is charged with the greatest task of all, the moulding
of human beings". Traditionally we have held our teachers in great
esteem, and they have fulfilled the duty of moulding the younger generations.
But times have changed and are changing with unprecedented speed. In this
new situation teachers have even greater duties to perform, to uphold
the best in our traditions and the values of our culture and also to be
instruments of human development and social transformation.
In this
Golden Jubilee year of our Independence, we can draw some satisfaction
from the all-round progress registered by our nation. In the field of
education and literacy as well, significant strides have been made. We
have established a vast network of educational institutions throughout
the country. Many of these are centres of excellence in teaching and research.
We have created a vast pool of a highly qualified and trained manpower
which is the envy of the world and which if properly used could be the
critical element in our development and overall progress. And yet in our
society, the literacy rate at 52 percent is well below that in other countries
and our educational standards are not as high as they used to be.
The
deprivation of education continues to be the worst and most insidious
aspect of backwardness and underdevelopment. And it is the weaker sections
of society, women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and others who
are most affected by this lack of education and remain vulnerable to prejudice,
discrimination and violence. At the risk of repeating a cliché,
I believe that education is the only panacea for all evils in our society.
It is the engine of human development and also of the material progress
of the country. That is why Dr.B.R.Ambedkar had demanded special facilities
for the education of the most deprived and backward classes in society.
He said once, "we may forgo material benefits . . . . . but we cannot
forgo the right and opportunity to reap the benefits of the highest education
to the fullest extent". Education is the only enduring means of empowerment,
of instilling self-confidence and pride in oneself, of imparting some
degree of control over one's own destiny. The priority which requires
to be given to education, therefore, cannot be overemphasized.
It is
in this context that the role of the teacher assumes vital importance,
perhaps, second only to that of parents. With love, compassion and understanding,
the teacher encourages the mental, physical and spiritual development
of the child. Rabindranath Tagore once said "When I teach anything
I do it with love". Indeed the secret of education lies in loving
and respecting the pupils you are teaching. That enables children to discover
their latent talents and creative energies thus leading to the full flowering
of the personality of the child. Teachers are role-models admired and
looked upto by students. As Mahatma Gandhi had said: " The true text
book for the pupil is his teacher." And "a teacher is one who.
. . . . sets an example of good behaviour." All of us, through our
own experience are deeply aware of the strong influence teachers have
exercised on our lives. And yet to-day when there is confusion in values
and standards, and even teachers tend to fall from the old pedestals,
it has become necessary to refurbish their role as models. Besides the
methods of and the approach to teaching have to be reconsidered. Talking
about his own experience of school days, Rabindranath Tagore, has said:
"We had to sit like dead specimens of some museum, while lessons
were pelted at us from on high, like hailstorms on flowers".
In Indian
tradition we have never looked upon a teacher merely as a purveyor of
information or knowledge. Rather, the teacher has always been viewed as
a "guru" or father figure and is a catalyst for change, a harbinger
of new ideas, progressive thinking and emancipation. It has been stated
in our tradition that education is that which liberates. There is the
need to liberate the Indian mind from many shackles, from prejudices,
superstitions, discriminations based on narrow considerations of caste,
creed, and gender, and language, region and class. There is the need for
inculcating in the youth rational thinking and scientific temper as well
as the time-tested values of our civilization.
A key
aspect of the teachers' role is in preparing students for a productive
life. Mahatma Gandhi had always emphasized the need for education through
manual labour and by learning a craft. Such an approach engenders respect
for dignity of labour and prepares students for a vocation. In India while
we have made some efforts for the vocationalization of education, we need
to integrate vocational training into our school curricula. This would
require trained and qualified teachers in disciplines which can cater
to the growing requirements of our primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.
At a time when our economy is opening up and the private sector is assuming
a greater responsibility in our developmental processes, we should be
able to forge a much stronger link between our schools, vocational institutions
and the private sector.
To cope
with the modern world and its complex and turbulent problems education
cannot remain fugitive and cloistered. Prof. Harold Laski used to say
that education has to be through the clash of ideas and debates with students
and teachers rubbing their shoulders and knocking their heads against
one another in creative exchanges of thoughts and ideas. The present is
the age of explosion of knowledge. Teachers have to be the harbingers
of new knowledge and ways of thinking and should initiate students into
the world of informatics, computers and electronics. They may not be technically
qualified in all these branches of knowledge but should be able to create
in students awareness of these expanding horizons of new knowledge. These
new horizons are not absolutely unrelated to our traditional knowledge.
For example familiarity with and learning of our exquisite handicrafts
like the crafts of the goldsmith, the weaver, the textile craftsmen etc.,
would be a preparation for entry into more sophisticated technologies.
It has been said that Japan has made its marvellous progress in micro
electronics because of their traditional expertise in calligraphy. There
is no reason why we in India cannot join together modern techniques with
our traditional technologies. Sree Narayana Guru in Kerala used to attach
to the new temples he built for the lower castes teaching facilities in
crafts and arts. Indeed after building many temples he told the people
that it was time from then onwards to build schools as they were the new
temples of India.
Mahatma
Gandhi as early as 1917 when he addressed the Second Gujarat Educational
Conference spelt out some of his ideas on education. He advocated education
through the mother tongue. He stressed the supreme importance of the education
of women warning that if women do not become "our life companions,
equal partners in the battle of life, all our efforts are doomed to failure".
We now know that women's education is the key to social and economic development.
Gandhiji also stressed the importance of music in education, the capacity
of music to create social harmony, and held that if the millions of Indians
could sing together that would lead to Swaraj.
He also stressed the importance
of sports education and bemoaned that we had neglected our indigenous
sports and games which are enjoyable and capable of developing every muscle
of our body. And one would be surprised to learn that Gandhiji complained
that "military training finds no place in our education". He
added. . . . "if anything from the west deserves copying, it is drill.
A friend once remarked that we did not know how to walk, particularly
when we had to walk in squads and steps.....It is not that such drill
is useful only in actual battle. It can be of great use in many other
activities in the sphere of public service. For example in extinguishing
fire, in rescuing people from drowning, in carrying the sick and disabled,
drill is useful. Then it is necessary to introduce in our schools, indigenous
games, exercises and the Western type of drill". We have introduced
all these in our schools in a manner, but not in a systematic way. We
have to look at education in a comprehensive manner bringing together
the new, the modern and the old in the field of science and technology
and in the realms of ideas. We have to integrate with our educational
system concepts like human rights, environmental imperatives and a world
vision. All this must begin with sensitivity to our own problems of poverty,
ignorance and disease. The teachers should instill in the students sensitivity
to these problems and create in them an urge to correct the ills and wrongs
of our society.
May
I once again extend my warm felicitations to all teachers and especially
to the award winners. It has been estimated that there are around 4.4
million teachers in India including primary, middle, secondary and higher
secondary levels. This is an impressive and formidable force. If they
can become not only good teachers but catalysts for wider education in
alliance with the students and the voluntary organisations and the general
public we would be able to educate our children and youth and abolish
the shame of mass illiteracy from our land. May I congratulate you for
the awards you have won for your meritorious service and wish you all
success in your noble endeavours.
Thank you.
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