In India, Teachers’ Day is observed on September 5 to mark the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan — a great teacher, philosopher and the second President of the country.
This year, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the Teacher's Day observance and celebrations are going to be online. Different institutions and alumni groups have planned online interactions; musical and dance performances; plays and poems based on the role of the teachers and other fun-filled festivities.
Right from August, the alumni group of the Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, Haryana, - the Ex-Raist Association (ERA) - have been planning an on-line interactive event punctuated by singing, question-answer session, poems, jokes, etc, in the evening on September 5 to express their gratitude towards their teachers. They have put up a curtain raiser also for it.
Their facebook site has gone abuzz with greetings for their teachers as graceful recognition of their contribution in shaping students‘ lives.
Some students of other schools have created performances related to the on-line classes with fun-filled comments, reactions, references and wise-cracks.
Many schools had the tradition of making senior students don the role of teachers to run the school and classroom sessions, however, this time some students have volunteered to conduct on-line classes on September 5. They have planned and rehearsed their sessions well since they belong to digital era. Hopefully, teachers will learn a lesson or two to better their on-line teaching from their student’ on-line sessions.
The internet search engine giant Google has marked the observance with special doodle to thanks teachers for providing selfless service to their students. The doodle has colorful sketches of instructional and study materials of learners such as the ruler, painting box, planet, mathematical symbols, etc.
On the serious side, their are also webinars on emergent roles of teachers, implications of NEP-202 for teachers as well as reflective articles on teacher preparation and their professional practices.
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Dr Radhakrishnan, who had started his political stint late in life after his successful academic career and an established thinker, had said, "Teachers should be the best minds in the country." And, for this, teachers need to strive to be life-long learners who foster self-learning potential of their students.
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