Celebrating Teachers' Day

INTRODUCTION

The birthday of our Second President, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is celebrated as Teachers' Day across the country since 1962. A renowned teacher, an academic philosopher and a strong supporter of education requested that his birthday be observed as Teachers' Day to mark respect and gratitude to the teachers who shape and influence our society. Thus 5th September is celebrated as Teachers’ Day in India while International Teachers' Day is celebrated on 5th October across the world.

TRAINING FOR A LIFETIME OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING

As all nations strive to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, education plays a key role of an enabler to achieve these goals. In this endeavour the role of the educator acquires paramount significance to create enlightened and empowered citizens. Unfortunately on account of work load and pressures to complete the assigned syllabus, educators focus on the short term goal of enabling students to pass their exams. There is a need to focus more on the larger goal of trainingyouth fora lifetime of sustainable living. Thus, educators need to use teaching learning tools that provide experiential, hands on and action oriented learning rather than mere theoretical knowledge. Hence, activity-based environment education is promoted as it has long-term impacts on the young minds of children at a deeper level. In addition to cognitive learning, these methods equip students with life skills. Working in teams, negotiating, adhering to timelines, self-assessment, understanding different viewpoints and decision-making are some of the life skills that get honed with activity-based methods. Also, this method of learning is devoid of stress, with games, activities and outdoor learning exercises being a lot more fun and hands-on for the students. A few activity-based methods that can be used by educators are as under:

ROLE OF THE EDUCATOR IN THE 21st CENTURY

The percolation of knowledge and information with the advent of internet has resulted in a paradigm shift. The educator is no longer the "know-it-all" or the epitome of knowledge. The focus of the educator's role has to be in facilitating learners to engage in activities so as to attain knowledge and translate it into action. Hence the educator should be able to identify the learners' needs, their skill sets, past knowledge, and accordingly devise activities for their engagement to promote learning outcomes, while simultaneously motivate and guide learners to accomplish their tasks.

DID YOU KNOW?

The practise of celebrating Teachers' Days is intrinsic to Indian culture. The role of teachers in influencing, shaping and moulding our society can be seen in the celebration of Guru Purnima, wherein the Guru- a person who removes darkness or ignorance is paid homage to on the full moon day of the Hindu Calendar month of Ashada.