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Modi, Murmu give pep talk to teachers
Prime Minister Modi, while interacting with the 45 teachers who won the national award, said the National Education Policy 2020 is being appreciated around the globe with teachers having played a big role in formulating it.
President Droupadi Murmu on Monday said that talent development in science, literature and social sciences can be more effective if taught in one’s mother tongue while Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that the country is moving in the right direction to strengthen its education ecosystem.
Addressing an event where she presented the National Teachers’ Award 2022 to 45 teachers for their unique contributions in the field of school education, Murmu said the foundation stone for further strengthening India’s position in these areas will be built through school education.
“In my view, the development of original talent in science, literature, or the social sciences can be more effective through the mother tongue,” she said. “It is our mothers who teach us the art of living in our early lives.”
After the mother, the teachers carry forward our education in lives, the President said. “If teachers also teach in their mother tongue, then students can develop their talent with ease,” she said. “That is why in the National Education Policy 2020, emphasis has been laid on the use of Indian languages for school education and higher education.”
The Union education ministry organises a function at Vigyan Bhawan every year on Teachers’ Day on September 5 — marking the birth anniversary of India’s first vice-president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan — to confer the awards to the best teachers of the country selected through a three-stage rigorous, transparent and online process.
She quoted a famous saying about teachers and said “the mediocre teacher tells; the good teacher explains; the superior teacher demonstrates; and the great teacher inspires”. “An ideal teacher has all four qualities. Such ideal teachers build a nation in true sense by building lives of the students,” she added.
Later in the day, Prime Minister Modi, while interacting with the 45 teachers who won the national award, said the National Education Policy 2020 is being appreciated around the globe with teachers having played a big role in formulating it.
“Our NEP is being applauded throughout the world. People can see how India is moving in the right direction to strengthen its education ecosystem,” he said. “Teachers played a major role in the formulation of the policy. The teachers have a monumental role to play in the implementation of the NEP.”
The PM also emphasised the need to go through the NEP more than once, while giving the analogy of Mahatma Gandhi reading the Bhagavad Gita repeatedly, each time finding a new meaning. “There is a need to imbibe the NEP in such a way that this government document turns into the basis of the students’ lives.”
The Prime Minister also said that surpassing the UK to become the world’s fifth largest economy is special because India has left behind those who ruled it for 250 years.
“The pleasure of surpassing those who ruled over India for approximately 250 years supersedes the mere statistics of improved ranking from 6th largest to 5th largest economy,” he said.
The prime minister recalled his Independence Day proclamation of ‘Panch Pran’ and suggested these may be discussed regularly in the schools so that their spirit is clear to the students.
“These resolutions are being appreciated as a way for the progress of the nation and we need to find a way to communicate them to the children and students. There should be no student in the entire country who does not have a dream for 2047,” he said. “There is a need to recreate the spirit that engulfed the nation during the years between Dandi Yatra and Quit India.”
He also reminded the awardees that it was all the more important to be felicitated by President Droupadi Murmu who is also a teacher and has taught in far-flung places of Odisha.
Highlighting the knowledge and dedication of teachers, the PM pointed out that their biggest quality is a positive outlook that enables them to work with students relentlessly for their improvement. “The role of a teacher is to show the light to a person, and it is them who sow the dreams and teach them to turn the dreams into resolve,” he added.
Modi also underlined the importance of removing conflict and contradictions in the various areas of the lives of students.
“It is important that there is no conflict in what a student experiences in school, society and at home. There is a need for an integrated approach by the teachers and partners with the families of the students to nurture the students,” he added.
