Ahmedabad, Sep 6 (PTI) Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has praised teachers for bringing down the school dropout rate in Gujarat, underscoring that education is the basis of the progress of a country or state.
He was speaking during an “inspirational dialogue” with 37 teachers, who have worked in innovative ways in remote areas of Gujarat, on the occasion of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s birth anniversary on September 5, celebrated as Teacher’s Day.
Patel met the teachers at his residence in Gandhinagar and said they inspired others not through words but through their actions. He also hailed them for contributing towards the reduction in the school dropout rate.
Launching the 23rd edition of Gujarat’s school enrolment drive, named ‘Shala Praveshotsav’, in June, Patel had said that the initiative had helped bring down the dropout rate from 35 per cent in 2003 to just 0.85 per cent this year.
He said that the basis of the progress of any nation or state is education, and outlined Gujarat’s progress in the field in the last two and a half decades.
Patel said initiatives such as ‘Shala Praveshotsav’, ‘Kanya Kelvani Abhiyan’ and ‘Gunotsav’, launched in the state under the inspiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are now providing direction to the entire nation in the field of education.
During the interaction with the CM, some of the teachers shared the details of their work.
“My school has its own news channel. PM Modi talks about ‘Nari Sashaktikaran (women empowerment)’, so our channel focuses on girls. We have a small studio in our school for shooting and we upload the videos on social media. We have been doing this since 2018,” said Nitin Pathak, a teacher from Rangpur Primary School, Navsari.
Biluben God Haniya of Ranavav Boys’ School in Porbandar said, “In our school, we have been working to educate students through TLM (teaching learning materials) and have achieved very good results.” Earlier on Friday, the CM also presented the ‘Best Teacher Award’ to 30 teachers, hailing the teaching community for fulfilling PM Modi’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by instilling in students the spirit of ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Nation First’, a statement said.
Stressing that today’s child is tomorrow’s citizen, he underlined the vital role of teachers. Quoting the PM, Patel said that after parents, teachers have the greatest influence on a child’s mind.
He highlighted the bond between a teacher and students as one of affection and urged teachers to shape the future generation by contributing to the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ through ‘Viksit Gujarat’, the statement said.
He congratulated the award winners, noting that honouring the best teachers on Teacher’s Day was the “right job at the right time”.
“The prime minister has promoted stress-free learning while reducing parents’ financial burden,” the CM said. He thanked PM Modi and the Union finance minister for the GST reforms, noting their focus on bringing down the cost of educational materials.
Referring to the New Education Policy and initiatives like ‘Namo Lakshmi’ and ‘Namo Saraswati’, the CM invoked Chanakya to stress the key role of teachers and said ‘gurus’ have long been torchbearers of knowledge in India.
As many as 94 teachers at the district level and 153 teachers at the taluka level were also felicitated locally, the statement added. PTI KA NR
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