WANNA KNOW WHY WE CELEBRATE NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY ON NOVEMBER 11 EVERY YEAR?
Byline by- Vinayak Heliwal
Every Year, India Celebrates National Education Day on November 11 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of Independent India.
A freedom fighter, scholar, and eminent educationalist, Maulana Azad was a key architect of independent India who was responsible for setting up apex education bodies like AICTE and UGC. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was also responsible for establishing the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the country.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad served as the India’s first Vice President and also first Education Minister of Independent India from 1947 to 1958.On National Education Day, India remembers Maulana Azad’s contribution to nation-building.
Maulana Azad once said that Schools are laboratories that produce future citizens of the country. In his address to the first meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), Maulana Azad said: “The primary aim of any system is to create balanced minds which cannot be misled.”
The Ministry of Human Resources Development announced on September 11, 2008, declared November 11 as National Education Policy to commemorate the birthday of this great son of India by recalling his contribution to the cause of education in India.
The first National Education Day Celebrations were inaugurated by then President of India Pratibha Patil on November 11, 2008, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Apart from IIT Kharagpur, University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council For Technical Education, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was also responsible for setting up Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Sahitya Academy, Lalit Kala Academy, Sangeet Natak Academy, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Maulana Azad was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award in 1992.