APJ Kalam Birth Anniversary 2021: Here's why it is celebrated as World Students' Day

To honour and mark the importance of India's 11th President APJ Abdul Kalam, in 2010 the United Nations declared his birthday on 15 October to be celebrated as World Students Day.

A recollection of APJ Abdul Kalam's legacy is incomplete without a mention of his role as a teacher. Kalam was dedicated to teaching and identified himself first as a teacher and then as anything else. His demise while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong was only fitting to his dedication towards teaching.

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This year, the UN’s theme is, ‘Learning for people, planet, prosperity, and peace’. The theme highlights the many ways learning can empower people, protect the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace. It reaffirms the role of education as a fundamental right, a public good and an enabler of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On teachers

In the President's Address at the presentation of the National Award to Teachers in 2004, he highlighted the need to recognise the efforts of a teacher and identified them as the backbone of any country. In his address he said that education is a process which leads to creativity.

He said, "The creativity is indeed the result of the education process and the environment of the school and above all the teachers' capability igniting the minds of the students. The essence of it can be seen in the following verses: Learning gives creativity, Creativity leads to thinking, Thinking provides knowledge, Knowledge makes you great."

About the aims of a teacher, he said, "The aim of the teacher should be to build character, human values enhance the learning capacity of children through technology and build the confidence among children to be innovative and creative which in turn will make them competitive to face the future."

Kalam envisioned a strong and self-reliant India and counted upon the teachers to prepare a future generation that could think independently and find solution to problems our country faced.

In the President's Address at the presentation of National Award to Teachers in 2006, he said, "Teachers have to realize that they are the builders of the society. The society can be built only when the students are made proficient in their subjects. In addition they have to provide a vision for life to the students and also inculcate the fundamentals of values which he should practice in the years to come."

On students

APJ Abdul Kalam's love for students, finds best voice when he said, "Dream, Dream, Dream, Dreams transform into thoughts. And thoughts result in action." He had also further said, to students, "If you fail, never give up because fail means 'first attempt in learning'."

Kalam also said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults”. He believed that if children's attitudes, values, ideas and, ideals could be moulded a better world could be achieved. The best method of education was by imparting behavior patterns. Teachers and parents should behave in such a way as to instill values in children, he said.

With input from agencies