Honouring Teachers - SYMA Growth 2024

 

The first instance of  our loving Black !  - it is the white chalkpiece knowledge imparted on School black board ! –  in tune with technology the boards in most schools have embraced change either in colour or the material itself !!

 

Guru Vandana means “Reverence for the Teacher” – it is the thanksgiving from a student to a teacher, expressing his or her gratitude.    In every Society, Teachers are to be respected most.  In our culture, they are reverred highly.  Education is the most important thing in life – it will give Worldly pleasures  and give pleasure to the world too; it will not diminish by giving; it will spread the fame of those possessing it; cannot be destroyed… there is no better medicine  than Education that can cure all ills

5th Sept is a special day - …and those in Chennai – know well this road connecting Beach Road [Kamarajar Salai] from Gandhi statue to Gemini flyover [Anna Membalam] …… is Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, earlier known as Cathedral Road.   In India,  5th Sept, is Teachers Day… in many countries, it is a special day appreciating the role of Teacher… but the World Teachers’ Day is distinctly different, for it is on Oct 5th. 

It was not randomly chosen but chosen as the day representing the best minds of the Nation !!!

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975),  a  philosopher and statesman  served as the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. He previously served as the first vice president of India from 1952 to 1962. He was the second ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952. He was also the fourth vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948 and the second vice-chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Radhakrishnan started his political career "rather late in life", after his successful academic career. He was a distinguished member of the  Constituent Assembly of India.  Radhakrishnan is considered one of the most influential and distinguished 20th century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. He held the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1932 and Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford from 1936 to 1952.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in a Telugu Brahmin family in a village near Thiruttani India, in the erstwhile Madras Presidency near the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states. His father's name was Sarvepalli Veeraswami (indicating lineage to the village near Nellore) and his mother's was Sitamma. His early years were spent in Thiruttani and Tirupati.

His philosophy was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition for a contemporary understanding. Radhakrishnan wrote his thesis for the M.A. degree on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions". It was intended to be a reply to the charge that the Vedanta system had no room for ethics." Radhakrishnan was awarded several high awards during his life, including a knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be the best minds in the country". Since 1962, his birthday is celebrated in India as Teacher's Day on 5 September.

The countries that share boundaries got Independence in 1947, while Teachers are held in esteem and education is flourishing in India, across the border the system is collapsing.   The Balochistan Post reported that  Balochistan’s Department of Education has issued a report on school closures stating 16,000 teachers are required to reopen the closed schools.   As of September 2, the number of closed schools had increased to 3,694 across 35 districts.

Smt. Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as the fifteenth President of India on 25 July, 2022. Hailing from  Uparbeda village, Mayurbhanj, Odisha, Smt. Murmu’s  served as an honorary teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur, from 1994 to 1997.

Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan  represented the University of Calcutta at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire in June 1926 and the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University in September 1926.  He delivered  the Hibbert Lecture on the ideals of life which he delivered at Manchester College, Oxford in 1929 and which was subsequently published in book form as An Idealist View of Life.  In 1929 Radhakrishnan was invited to take the post vacated by Principal J. Estlin Carpenter at Manchester College.  For his services to education he was knighted by George V in  1931  and formally invested with his honour by the Governor-General of India, the Earl of Willingdon, in April 1932.  However, he ceased to use the title after Indian independence,   preferring instead his academic title of 'Doctor'. He was also nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize 27 times, which included 16 nominations for the Nobel Prize in literature, and 11 for the Nobel Peace prize. 

SYMA has an unsaturated desire for serving the Society. SYMA [Srinivas Youngmen’s Association]  has been in the field of Social service since 1977.  At SYMA, we realize that  Education can refine a person and ensure one’s success in life.   We at SYMA, feel strongly the primary responsibility  of improving the Society and helping the underprivileged providing quality educational support through SYMA Growth.

The success of SYMA Growth in uplifting the students from lower echelons of society is fully because of the untiring efforts of teachers of SYMA Growth. Yesterday evening, we honoured our Growth teachers.  SYMA places on record our profound thanks  to the Management of NK Thirumalachariyar National Boys High School,  to    our beloved teachers of SYMA Growth,  and you all who had supported SYMA in all its endeavours.  Thanks to our dedicated  teachers for providing quality education to students from economically weaker sections, lighting their path and showing them the way for a bright future. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
11^th Sept  2024