Smt Urmila Singh Governor conferred State Awards upon 14 teachers and honoured four National Award Winner teachers for the year 2012 in the presence of Sh Virbhadra Singh Chief Minister in an impressive function held at Rajbhawan on the occasion of State level Teacher’s Day here today.Both, Governor and Chief Minister paid rich tributes to late Dr S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, on whose birthday Teacher’s Day is celebrated. Both termed Dr. S. Radhakrishnan as a veracious personality, noble laureate, academician and an able administrator.
In her address on the occasion, Smt Urmila Singh urged all the teachers to undertake teaching profession as a ‘mission’ and serve the country and society with utmost dedication.
Governor underlined the importance of ‘ Guru’ and added that our culture accorded highest reverence for teachers and it was due to the learned ‘Guru’s’ and the knowledge possessed by our ancestors that India was regarded as a hub of Knowledge in the past.
Smt Singh said that teaching was a noble profession and carries a huge responsibility because the conduct, character and thoughts of teachers influence the students therefore, they should perform their duties honestly and sincerely. She said that teachers not only inspire the students as role models but also were nation builders.
She said that objective of education would not be fulfilled in its true sense unless good values were incorporated in the learning and added that students should be taught the importance of discipline, patriotism and human values so that they not only become educated but also good human beings and responsible citizens. She said that curriculum should include vocational courses in order to empower the students to opt for self employment but the goal of education should not be confined to mere employment generation or earning money.
Governor also released a souvenir on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Sh Virbhadra Singh stressed on quality education and not merely to achieve the purpose of teaching just for sake of it. “The customary values and adequate knowledge requires to be inculcated in the students so that they get ready to compete at all levels and stand well settled. We want to produce such children who excel in all fields and at all levels”, he said. To achieve this objective, the teachers have to give and put in more efforts and equally maintain the quality of education being imparted to young minds” said the Chief Minister. He said the teachers should introspect that what else they can endow the society with and how they can further contribute in building a strong and vibrant Nation.
“Our education system needs a bit of revamping at primary and elementary levels and teachers to be made more responsible for shaping the destiny of the students for the better” said he.
The teachers were responsible for inculcating good values among students and proper guidance from them could show right path to them in their lives said he, adding that the country could get good citizens only through the active participation and guidance of teachers.
He said that State Government was committed for providing best education to children and added that the literacy rate was more than 83 percent in the state. He said that cent per cent enrollment targets were achieved in primary education and efforts were afoot to achieve the same in elementary and higher education sectors as well. He said that there was a wide network of educational institutions across the state with more than 15000 educational institutions in government sector alone. Many important decisions have been taken to equip the schools with all requisite infrastructure in far flung areas with adequate staff , he said and added that besides imparting training to teachers, impetus was being laid upon giving a concrete shape to child oriented education system under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and National Elementary Education Campaign.
Sh Virbhadra Singh said that efforts were being made to adopt computerized education system with special focus on promoting teaching mathematics and science subjects besides strengthening the infrastructure so that students could get best facilities to pursue education. He said that Schools were being opened, upgraded besides filling up of posts of teachers by following laid down norms. He said that during the tenure of present government as many as 695 schools were either opened or upgraded.
Chief Minister said that students of government schools were also given the facility of free travel in HRTC buses and added that 607 TGT, 529 C& V categories teachers were appointed besides filling up 1095 posts of JBT. The government also enhanced the honorarium of PTA teachers.
Governor conferred State Awards upon Shri Bhupinder Gupta, Principal, GSSS Bhumpti, District Solan, Shri Saraswati Nadan Prasher, Headmaster, GHS Rakhera, district Mandi, Shri Madan Lal, Lecturer, GSSS Kakkar, District Hamirpur, Shri Janamjay Singh Guleria, Lecturer, GSSS Shahpur, District Kangra, Shri Sudesh Hazri, DPE, GSSS Sailgaloo, District Mandi, Shri Som Singh Bhardwaj, TGT, GHS Bahi Pathiair, District Kangra, Shri Ravi Shanker, Art & Craft Teacher, GSSS Takka , District Una, Shri Ashok Thakur, Shastri, GHS Uschar District Kangra, Shri Krishan Pal Sharma, Shastri, GHS Bharari District Shimla, Smt. Nirmala Devi, CHT, GCPS Domehar, district Bilaspur, Shri Birbal Katoch, CHT, GCPS Bharagaon, District Mandi, Shri Rajesh Kumar, CHT, GCPS Batheri, District Mandi, Shri Ram Lal, JBT, GPS, Shodhadhar, District Mandi, Shri Bhim Singh, HT, GPS Tarrur, District Mandi.
She also honoured four National Award Winners for the year 2012 including Shri Rakesh Kumar, TGT, GSSS, Ambehra, District Una, Shri Narotam Chand, CHT, GPS Deol, District Kangra, Smt. Soma Rana, Headmaster GHS Nasloh district Mandi and Shri Sartaj Singh, Lecturer (Economics) GSSS Chandi district Solan on the occasion.
Sh Ashok Sharma Director Elementary Education welcomed the dignitaries on the occasion.
Sh Shashi Bhushan Sekhri, Director, Higher Education proposed vote of thanks.
A colourful cultural programme was presented by students of various educational institutions.
Sh. Sujan Singh Pathania, MPP and Agriculture Minister, Chief Parliamentary secretaries, Shri Neeraj Bharti and Sh. Sohan Lal, Shri Ali Raza Rizvi, Principal Secretary Education, senior officers of state government, teachers and students of various schools were also present among others on the occasion.