Port Blair, Sept 05: The birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India, a great Philosopher and Teacher was celebrated today as Teachers Day throughout the Islands with zeal and enthusiasm. To mark the occasion, a function was organized in the auditorium of Govt. Girls Senior Secondary School here today. The Lt Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM was the chief guest and gave away the Best Teachers Award to 18 teachers selected from different zones of the Islands. He also gave away prizes to the winners of different competitions organized for the teachers to mark the celebration. The First Lady of the Islands, Smt Bhawanee Singh also graced the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Lt Governor congratulated the teaching community of the Islands on the occasion and dwelt on the importance of the day. He stated that Teachers Day is celebrated to pay tributes to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was a great visionary and has contributed enormously in the Nation building. He further stated that teaching is a noble profession and teachers hold a place of pride and importance in the society. Teachers are the role model and students always look towards the teachers and emulate the qualities of their gurus, he said. Besides imparting academic education, teachers should also inculcate good values in the children for the all round personality development of the children and for doing so, parents along with the teachers have to play important role in this regard.
He noted with appreciation that Education department has organized a week-long programme to mark the occasion in which competitions in debates, drama, singing and sports was held. He further expressed happiness that the Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE Act) has been implemented in these islands and redeployment of teachers is done accordingly.
He stated that the Department of Education is responsibly imparting education to about 86,000 students with the support of 5,373 teachers in Govt., Govt. aided and private schools. The pupil teacher ratio here is also good. During the year 2012, the Board Examination result for Class X was 97.52 % and 70.09 percent for Class XII and constant efforts are being made to further improve the results. The literacy rate of the Islands is also improving.
He further stated that Science stream has been introduced in Govt School Havelock and Govt. Model Senior Secondary School, GoI Tekri from this academic session. Further 272 Sarva Shiksha Contract Teachers have been appointed and departmental promotion was given to 107 teachers during this academic session. From the academic session 2012-13, pre-school education facility is being made available in 297 schools of the Administration providing employment opportunity to 594 persons to work as Pre-Primary Teachers and Part-Time Ayas/safai karamcharis.
Referring to the steps being taken to improve the quality of education in schools, he stated that to achieve quality in education, the department has entered into a MOU with CII-Institute of Quality Bangalore and in the 1st Phase, 10 schools of South Andaman District have been identified for quality governance and accreditation.
He also had special words of appreciation for Shri Christopher, Head Master (Primary) and Smt Sakina Bibi, GTT who have been selected for the prestigious President Award and congratulated all the 18 hardworking and dedicated teachers who have been honored with the Best Teachers Award.
On the occasion, teachers presented an excellent cultural performance and entertained everyone present in the auditorium.
The Chief Secretary, Shri Anand Prakash, Chairperson, PBMC, senior officers of the Administration and members from the teaching community were present on the occasion.
