Address to the Teachers at PGI Auditorium

TEACHERS - BEST MINDS OF A NATION

I am indeed delighted to meet you all teachers of various schools here in this beautiful and prosperous city of Chandigarh. My heartfelt greetings to all of you on the eve of Teachers' Day. We are reminded of the great thinker, philosopher and educationist of our nation, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. In his opinion, teachers should be the best minds of the country; they should not merely instruct but should gain the true affection of pupils, and the respect for teachers cannot be ordered but it should be earned. He was also of the opinion that the aim of education is not only the acquisition of information and skills but also the development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens. We have to think together in this direction and act accordingly towards achieving this goal. Today I would like to share my thoughts on the role of teachers in shaping the young minds.

Moral Values in Education

The right kind of education based on moral values will upgrade the society and the country. Dr. Radhakrishnan had a vision to bring in a change in the educational system by improving the quality of education and building up a strong relationship between the teacher and the students. I was asking myself, what will be the components of such a mission which will correct the aberrations in the society such as corruption, non-tolerance, negative attitudes, selfishness so that good human beings and enlightened citizens are created, leading to a harmonious society. Afterall, peace of the individual, thereby peace in the family, peace of the nation and thereby peace of our planet earth will emerge as given in the poetic divine message:

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is a beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.

There is an order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. This is indeed the purpose of human creation, that is divinity.

Standard Human Being

The evolution of human society has followed the path from agricultural society to industrial, information and the present day knowledge society. In agricultural and industrial society, humans and machines dominated the warfare. In the information and knowledge society, intellectual capacity would dominate. Intellectual domination is represented by ideologies, principles and faiths. The suffocation and loss of human rights by a large number of people even in the present century, due to the backwardness induced economic status or pushed down by caste differentiation or frustrated by denial of timely justice at affordable cost, is the right cauldron from which standard human beings will evolve. The road map for graduating into a standard human being will have to include :-

a) Education with value system,

b) Integration of capacities

c) Removal of societal discrimination I believe, a standard human being can be created when all these three elements are properly combined.

a. Education with Value System

The best part for a person is his or her learning period in school childhood. The prime learning environment is 5 to 16 years of age. Of course at home, love and affection are imparted. But again most of the time in a day is spent in preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need the best of environment and mission oriented learning with value system. During this stage, they need value based education in school and at home for them to become good citizens. This reminds me the echo from Bestolozzy, a great teacher's saying, "Give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated mission: education with value system. If the child misses the value based education of 25,000 hours in the school campus, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity. Up to the age of 17 years, the father, the mother and the teacher lead a child to become an enlightened citizen. If the child misses the period of learning for the reasons, the nation loses an enlightened citizen.

b. Integration of capacities

In the education environment, we need to give our children the capacity for contributing to economic development and nation building. These include the capacity for research or inquiry, the capacity for Creativity and Innovation and the capacity for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

1) Research and enquiry

The 20th century was for the generation of knowledge. The 21st century will be about the management of all the knowledge and information we have generated and give value to it. We must give our children, the skills with which they find a way through the sea of knowledge that we have created. Today, we have the ability, through technology, to really and truly teach ourselves and to become the life-long learners that any sustained economic and political development requires.

(2) Creativity and innovation

Creativity comes from beautiful minds. It can be anywhere and from any part of the country. It has got multi dimensions like inventions, discoveries and innovations. Creativity has an attitude to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. Creativity involves a process to work hard continually to improve ideas and solutions by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works. The important aspect of creativity is: seeing the same thing as everybody else, but thinking of something different. These characteristics are required to be nurtured and promoted amongst the students.

(3) Entrepreneurial leadership

The Entrepreneurial leadership first involves identifying the problem and then finding its solution in the context of development. Entrepreneurship starts with understanding our needs and realizing that as human beings we all have similar needs. It begins with wanting to help others as we help ourselves. Secondly, there should be willingness to undertake new challenges. Entrepreneurship requires doing things differently, being bold in our thinking and this is always risky. We must teach our children how to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. The third part involves the disposition to do things right.

c. Removal of Societal Discriminations

For bringing about the unity of minds and creating a sense of equality among the children who are the future of the nation, a teacher has to play an important role in removing the very concept of societal discrimination such as social discrimination, gender discrimination and economic disparity from the minds of the children. A teacher can do this by setting his or her own example by treating all the children without any bias, irrespective of whether the child is a boy or a girl, whether the child comes from a rich or poor family, or whether the child belongs to a particular region or religion or the other.

A teacher's commitment

While classroom learning is important, what the child learns by self-observation outside the classroom is equally important. A child must become an active participant in the process of learning through observation, field studies, experiments and discussions. A child's individuality and creativity needs to be given due importance in our education. Further, in addition to innovation in curriculum, priority needs to be given to the reorientation of the outlook of the teachers and overhauling of the examination system so that it recognises and evaluates creativity and new thinking rather than memorization of facts. The schools must move from becoming educational centers to knowledge and skill centers.

You know how birds fly? Our teacher in Class-VIII, way back in 1943, Shri Sivasubramania Iyer, a great human being, taught us science and many subjects. One day he was teaching us how birds fly. The importance of shape of the bird, how it flaps its wings to create lift, then how it gains momentum. The tail gives it direction. He taught well, but somehow, we could not visualize how birds fly. Then I remember, it was 3.30 pm, in Rameswaram island, he took us to the sea shore of our island. And there, at sunset, we saw the sea birds, fly. We watched them flap their wings, then stop as they assumed momentum. Change the direction with tail movement. That day, I knew this is what I would do. I would study the flight of science. My teacher, his life and his way of teaching showed me the way. In that class I decided my mission.

The teacher puts a child decades ahead

Another incident was at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. As a young student, we had the opportunity at St. Joseph's College witnessing a scene, a unique, divine looking personality walking through the college campus every morning teaching Mathematics B.Sc (Honours) and MA (Mathematics) students. Young students looked with awe and respect, a personality symbolizing our own culture. When he walked, knowledge radiated all around. The great personality was, Prof.T.Totadri Iyengar, the great teacher. At that time, 'Calculus Srinivasan' was my mathematics teacher. Calculus Srinivasan used to talk about Prof. Totadri Iyengar with deep respect. During those days, he and Prof. Totadri Iyengar had an understanding to have an integrated class by Prof. Totadri Iyengar for first year B.Sc. (Hons) and first year B.Sc. (Physics). I had the opportunity to attend his classes, particularly on the subjects of modern algebra, statistics and also once I heard him teaching complex variables. When we were in the BSc first year, Calculus Srinivasan used to select top ten students to the Mathematics Club of St. Joseph's to where Prof. Totadri Iyengar used to give lecture series. One day, in 1952, I still remember, he gave a one hour lecture on ancient mathematicians and astronomers of India and introduced four great mathematician and astronomers. For nearly one hour he spoke. The lecture is still ringing in my ears. I was introduced to the pride of the nation: pioneers in astronomy and mathematics (4th to 20th century) Aryabhata, Bhaskara and Ramanujam who gave to the world, the value of zero to number, orbit period of earth around sun and recently number theory. The two incident narrated have become the foundation for my education, learning with hope and value system. My teachers of primary, secondary and college education had put me few decades ahead.

Teachers need to continuously assess and evaluate themselves and make a self analysis to find out whether their actions and transactions are leading towards this direction.

Conclusion

The teachers have a great mission to ignite the minds of the young. The ignited minds of the young are the most powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. I would like to conclude by quoting the thoughts of Dr. Radhakrishnan. He had said, "Education should be imparted with a view to the type of society that we wish to build. We are working for a modern democracy built on the values of human dignity and equality. These are only ideals; we should make them living forces. Our vision of the future should include these great principles."

I wish all the teachers a great success in promoting value based education to the future citizens who will be the pillars of a strong and developed nation.