Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday stated that one of the most important issues facing the nation today is the need to improve the quality of education and learning.
"One of the most important issues facing school in the country is the need to improve the quality of education and learning. We need more teachers who can build values of quality, freedom, justice, secularism, concern for others' well being and respect for human dignity and rights," Naidu said while interacting with school teachers of Delhi Tamil Education Association School in the city on the occasion of Teachers' Day.
"Today, around 95 per cent of children are in schools and we have more universities and education institutions than we had at the time of independence. Over 70 lakh teachers are teaching 20 crore students in 15 lakh primary schools in the country," Naidu said.
He said that the literacy rate has been steadily improving ever since the independence of the country.
"I call upon all teachers in the country, to rededicate themselves and pledge that they will transform classrooms into hubs of joyful learning. The students should be made aware of our rich heritage and glorious history," the vice president said.
He also outlined that the country has given a central place to teachers and said, "We call them Gurus, the Sanskrit word that connotes the source of illumination. We are the inheritors of the system of Gurukuls. A system in which the teachers and the students lived together and pursued studies in a caring environment".
He also added that Gurukul was a system of education based on a constant dialogue between the teacher and student.
Teacher's Day is celebrated across the country in the memory of former President Dr S Radhakrishna, a philosopher-author and India's second president who was born on September 5, 1888.
His contributions to the field of education are exemplary. In 1962, the tradition to celebrate Teachers' Day started to honour Radhakrishnan and all the teachers.
( With inputs from ANI )