Education nation’s biggest asset, teachers its creators: Governor

Patel, who was the chief guest at the programme, said empowering teachers, enhancing their professional capabilities and ensuring their continuous development are the foundations of the changes envisaged in the education system. She welcomed the NCTE’s efforts to train teachers.

Stressing that education must be a right, an opportunity, a culture and a strong medium for nation-building, Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel said on Tuesday that it is a nation’s biggest asset and teachers are its creators.

Governor Anandiben Patel and others at the National Conclave 2026 in Agra on Tuesday. (HT)

The governor was addressing the inaugural function of the ‘National Conclave 2026’, organised by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in collaboration with Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, at Jai Prakash Narain Sabhagar on the university’s Swami Vivekanand campus.

Patel, who was the chief guest at the programme, said empowering teachers, enhancing their professional capabilities and ensuring their continuous development are the foundations of the changes envisaged in the education system. She welcomed the NCTE’s efforts to train teachers.

“Changes are visible in the education system compared to the past. There was a time when education for girls was a distant dream, but concrete steps brought about a change. Teachers below the age of 50 need to know about this,” Patel said.

She appreciated Pushti (National Professional Standards for Teachers-NPST) and Mitra (National Mission for Mentoring-NMM), envisaged under the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020. She said the initiatives are paving the way for new teachers to receive better guidance from experienced teachers serving as mentors.

“Our school education system is one of the largest in the world and comprises 1.03 crore teachers. We need to assess whether teachers are continuously evolving to impart education according to students’ needs and their learning abilities. This is where the NCTE comes into play,” the governor said.

The two-day conclave is being held on the theme ‘Capacity Building of Stakeholders for Nationwide Roll Out of PUSHTI (NPST) and MITRA (NMM)’. It is being attended by participants from nine states and union territories under the northern region’s territorial jurisdiction: Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Elaborating on the theme of the conclave, NCTE chairperson Prof Pankaj Arora said India has a network of 25 crore schoolchildren, while 4.5 crore students are enrolled in higher education, of whom 49.7% are girls.

UP higher education minister Yogendra Upadhyaya also addressed the gathering. Vice-chancellor Prof Ashu Rani welcomed the guests.