Narendar Modi Says I would like to begin by saluting the large community of teachers, who toil day and night to ensure the overall development of their pupils. Today we pay tributes to Dr. S Radhkrishnan, whose birth anniversary is commemorated as Teachers Day every year across the nation. Teacher’s Day brings back a lot of memories for most students. This is a day when students in many schools themselves take on the mantle of teaching in the classrooms and administering the day’s routine. On a larger level, Teacher’s Day is an opportunity for teachers, students and the larger education world to innovate and do something new.Every Teacher’s Day I look forward to meeting more than 1 crore students of Gujarat. Using latest technology, I connect with these students and their teachers, spread across the state in a fun filled and enlightening session during which they ask me a number of questions. What truly amazes me is the innocence, the desire to know more and the phenomenal intelligence of the young minds. When these youngsters question me on various issues, I feel very happy that behind these minds are wonderful and hardworking teachers who are devotedly preparing them for a bright future.
Have you ever wondered why those seeking alms or asking for money stand outside temples and not cinema halls or 5 star hotels? It is because they know that those who come to worship in a temple will be kind and compassionate towards them. In a similar vein, when thoughts about India’s future come to my mind, I go and stand as a ‘Bhikshuk’ at the doors of the teaching community. Teachers are the true temples of knowledge with an infinite capacity to give.
There is an anecdote relating to teachers that I wish to share. Once, I had met a teacher who had expressed severe over the fact that he was repeatedly ‘insulted’ and referred to as a ‘Master.’ I told this person that while I am not aware of the origins behind calling a teacher ‘Master’, what I do know is the fact that people see you as the incarnate of the Mother, which is why the term Master (माँ-स्तर). What can be a bigger way to express one’s gratitude for a teacher?
While the parents give birth to a child, it is the teacher who gives life! In everyone’s life, I am sure there is atleast one teacher who has left a lasting impression on the mind. It may be a primary teacher who taught you the alphabets, the high school teacher who forced you to do algebra or a college professor who shared your passion for a particular subject. Our love for a subject can almost entirely be traced back to a teacher who taught it beautifully and made the subject come alive. And in those teaching sessions they crafted our way to the future.
It is a fact that behind the success of every great person, there is the hard work and dedication of his or her teacher. Be it Sandipani for Krishna, Dhronacharya for Arjun or Vishvamitra and Vashistha for Shri Ram, we can see how much difference a Guru can make in the life of the pupil! The great Greek philosopher Socrates, himself a guide to Plato once remarked that his father was a sculptor and his mother a midwife but he wanted to do both and that is why he became a teacher, who can not only enable a child to enter the world, but also carefully make him into a fine citizen.
When the end of the world was approaching, Manu took a boat in which he kept all types of people and animals in one boat so that the world can be recreated. Today, if we need to create a new world, we will need teachers more than anyone else. The 21st century is the century of knowledge and needless to say, if we want to progress in this century of knowledge teachers will play a central role in this.
Friends, I am happy to share that Gujarat has taken this task of strengthening our education system very seriously over the last decade. We have undertaken a mammoth teacher’s recruitment programme in which over 1,33,000 teachers have been recruited. There can be few greater joys than to see our little children coming to school and leaving the school with wide smiles on their faces.
Every year in the scorching month of June, my Cabinet Colleagues, senior officials and myself head to the villages of Gujarat and we personally ask parents to give their children for education. Our Gunotsav programme has instilled fresh vigour in our primary education system. It has allowed us to both introspect and at the same time look ahead in creating a quality system of education.
The results of our initiatives are for everyone to see. From 75% enrollment and 21% dropout ratio in Classes 1-5 a decade ago, we have attained almost 100% enrollment and a negligible dropout rate of 2%. From 127 Government high schools ten years ago, the number has shot up to over 750. There has also been technological upgradation of our schools- a decade ago we had merely 487 computer labs whereas this number has crossed 22,200 today.
Gujarat is blessed to have some of the most committed team of teachers. Last year we had released a book covering 25 innovative teachers who were making a difference at the primary school level. There are many such jewels out there. Every teacher may not receive awards but even if one student from their class wins an accolade, the job of the teacher is more than complete!
