11 Nov :As a tribute to first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the country on Tuesday celebrated his birthday as the first National Education Day with President Pratibha Patil pitching for infusing "dynamism" in the education sector to adjust to the rapid changes.
Addressing a function in New Delhi on Tuesday to mark the occasion, Patil stressed the need for upgradation of teaching methods, training and sensitisation of teachers to social issues, including gender equality.
"The objective of celebrating National Education Day should be to strengthen our educational institutions and to raise the quality of education to greater heights," she said.
"In today’s age that is dominated by knowledge and high technology, the real challenge before our educational system is to create a human resource that can take advantage of new opportunities and face new challenges. Our education system should have the dynamism to be able to adjust to the rapid change," she said.
She released a Special Postal Cover in the honour of Maulana Azad as part of several programmes like essay and debate competitions, seminar and conferences held across the country to celebrate the occasion.
Patil said education is essential to make the people aware about their responsibilities to contribute to the growth of society.Education should impart knowledge and open up new opportunities.Underlining that education should be encompassing, she said efforts must be made to take education to the weakest sections of society.
"It is important that every citizen of our country, whether man or woman, boy or girl, must have the opportunity of receiving education," she said.The President spoke about Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and said success of the programme would require due attention to be paid to the quality of education.
Describing Maulana as a great visionary, a scholar, secularist and eminent educationist, she pointed out that though he did not get any formal education, he became a scholar in several languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic and subjects like Mathematics and Philosophy.
HRD Minister Arjun Singh said Maulana wanted a common system of education based on equality.He said the National University for Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has decided to set up a chair in the name of Maulana.
Singh also released three books on Maulana compiled by National Book Trust.