Sound education system a must, says President

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 29

Calling for “All for knowledge and knowledge for all”, President Pranab Mukherjee today said a sound education system could be the alchemy to take India to the next golden era.

Mukherjee was speaking after presenting the fourth Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskars, which honour senior and secondary schoolteachers from Punjab. Fifteen schoolteachers from Punjab were presented with the awards at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan today.

The function coincided with the 95th birthday of Malti Mohinder Singh Syngle, who has been an eminent educationist from Punjab.

Mukherjee said, “The teachers play a pivotal role in the Indian system and a holistic education system puts values in students at the school and college levels.”

He said a sound school system was possible through good quality of teachers who were dedicated to children.

Asserting that a sound education system was the cornerstone of society, he pointed out that a lot of work was still needed to be done in this field and urged the private sector to come forward for the purpose.

Three teachers each in English, social science and mathematics and two each in science, physics and chemistry from the 22 districts of Punjab are picked every year to be honoured with the award.

Those present at the occasion were Minister for Women and Child Welfare Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Punjab’s Education Minister Dr DD Cheema, besides Punjab’s Rural Development and Gram Panchayat Minister SS Maluka.

The 15 teachers who received the awards included Ajay Kumar Bahri (Kartarpur district, Jalandhar, physics), Geeta Arora (Bhucho Kalan, Bathinda, physics), Kulwinder Kaur (Faridkot, chemistry), Parmal Singh (Sangrur, chemistry), Pardeep Kumar (Barnala, science), Parveen Kumar (Sangrur, science), Manisha (Amritsar, mathematics), Parvinder Singh (Fazilka, mathematics), Puneet Garg (Barnala, mathematics), Maninder Kaur (Fatehgarh Sahib, English), Deepak Sharma (Amritsar, English), Amandeep Singh (Ludhiana, English), Gursharan Kaur (Sodhian, social sciences), Gurmeet Singh (Nangal, social sciences) and Harvinderpal Singh (Katore Wala, social sciences).

Recognised by the Punjab Government as the state award, the Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskars were instituted by the Mohinder Singh Syngle Educational and Research Society in the honour of its founder Malti Mohinder Singh Syngle.