5th September, 1888 was the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice President and the second President of India. Teacher’s Day is celebrated on his birth anniversary in India.
The former President was born in the year 1882 to a Telugu Brahmin family in Tirutani in Andhra Pradesh. A highly educated man of his times, Dr.Radhakrishnan did his Masters in Philosophy from University of Madras, after which he went on to teach in University of Mysore and University of Calcutta.
Later, he served as the Vice Chancellor in Andhra University as well as in Banaras Hindu University. After all these accomplishments, he was also invited to Oxford University to take the chair of Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions.
He was loved by all his students and was known to be a wonderful, interactive and approachable teacher. He was ever ready to help and was always there for his students. The story goes that after he was President of India, some old students and friends asked him to allow them to celebrate his birthday in which he answered, “Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if September 5th is observed as Teachers’ Day.”
Dr. Radhakrishnan was an achiever, a humanitarian and an inspiration to the youth. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1931 and many other civilian awards like the Knighthood. Not only this, he was nominated eleven times for the Nobel Peace Prize throughout his lifetime.
About Teachers Day
In many countries across the world, teacher’s day is a special day where teachers of schools, colleges, and universities are honored specially. The date varies from country to country. World Teacher’s Day is celebrated on 5th October. It was UNESCO who started this tradition. On this day in the year 1966, a special intergovernmental conference adopted the UNESCO endorsement regarding the statuses of teachers.
In India, the Teacher’s Day is celebrated on 5th September and this tradition started from 1962.
This is the day when Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born. He was a philosopher, scholar, teacher, and politician and his dedicated work towards education made his birthday an important day in the history of India. We remember the great work of this exemplary person on this day.
Teaching is the most influential job in the world. Teachers are known to shape the mind of youth and without knowledge no one can exist in this world. Teacher imparts good value in children and turn them into responsible citizens. So, almost every country celebrates Teacher’s Day.
HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY