“A teacher does not flow with the waves of society. Rather he has the capacity and determination to change the flow. Education for a teacher should be a resolve and not merely a profession,? said Shri Mohan Bhagwat, Sarkaryavah of RSS. He was addressing the concluding ceremony of three-day national convention of Akhil Bharatiya Shaikshik Mahasangh in Agra on December 28. He informed that before the British came here, the literacy rate in our country was over 70 per cent while in Britain it was merely 17 per cent. But when they left the country the situation totally reversed. In the changing scenario he advised the teachers to think globally, act locally.
Shri Bhagwat exhorted the teachers that certain forces were trying to make education a commercial activity. ?Efforts are being made to remove true history from the curriculum so that Indians forget their glorious past and fall prey to their conspiracy,? he added.
Earlier, inaugurating the convention Dr Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, said the holy relations between a teacher and a student were weakening and there is a strong need to strengthen them. He said it could be strengthen only by mutual trust. He said the responsibility of national reconstruction lies more on the teachers and they need to work for it irrespective of their regional boundaries. He also released a souvenir of the Mahasangh.
Shri K. Narhari, president of the Mahasangh, said the situation of education in the country is worrying. ?Both education and teachers have been segregated. Commercialisation prevailes. The new generation is being misguided by teaching them wrong facts. The teachers too need to agitate for it,? he said. He called upon the teachers to work with positive attitude.
Shri Mahendra Kapoor, general secretary of the Mahasangh, said the Mahasangh has work in 32 states of the country and more than 6.5 lakh teachers and parateaching staff are associated with it. He said 82 universities of the country are also associated with it.
Dr Bhagwati Prasad Sharma of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch said since the beginning of commercialisation of education in the country, it is going beyond the reach of the common man.
Shri Brahmdev Sharma ?Bhaiji?, organising secretary of Vidya Bharati, stressed the need to make education completely autonomous and free it from the government control. Shri Mukund Rao Kulkarni, national organising secretary of the Mahasangh, said an awareness campaign would soon be launched in the country for making education India-friendly. Dr Anupam Goel, Dr Dilip Sardesai, Dr Jagdish Singh, Shri Govind Dev also spoke on the occasion.
The convention adopted six resolutions?permanent appointment of teachers at all level, minimum 6 per cent budget for education, economic condition and not the caste as the basis of reservation, removal of objectionable portions from the text books, efforts to remove discrepancies from education and appeal to the media to act as a sentinel of the democratic system. (FOC)
