To sir with love

Three teachers from Haridwar have been bestowed with prestigious President's award :

P.S. Chauhan

Teachers' Day is a special day for entire teachers' fraternity and Haridwar has a reason to celebrate as three teachers from Haridwar have been selected for the prestigious President's award which will be conferred on them in a glittering ceremony in the national capital today.

Gopal Singh, a teacher in the Govt. Primary School of a village, Raighati in Laksar, Haridwar, who has made to the top honour, fighting against all odds, is an example to emulate for the entire teaching community. When he was 17 years old, his house raided by dacoits. The robbers killed his uncle, while one of his hands was chopped off by them and the other was so seriously bruised that it could not become fully functional even after surgery.

"The tragedy which struck me and my family shattered us for a while. However, I soon recovered from the trauma, thanks to the inspiration of my parents," says Singh. With fortitude and single minded devotion he pursued his studies and obtained master degree and later on passed the BTC examination to qualify to be a teacher. "It has always been my dream to become a teacher and spread the light of knowledge in the neighbouring rural areas," says the physically challenged teacher. From 1988 to 1990 he worked as a supervisor under the informal education campaign launched to teach those who could not get the benefit of the formal education and later on he started a school at the backward villages of Bhaktanpur for the children of the rural folk who had no access to educational facilities. In 1992 he joined the state govt. service and was posted in the school at Raighati, which is such a remote village that for four years he alone ran the school. "I put my heart and soul in improving the conditions of the school and upgrading the standard of education. Today I have the satisfaction that though the students of my school come from poor strata of society, my school has been adjudged among the best primary schools in the state," adds Gopal Singh with smile on his face. He is the only teacher in the state to be selected for the President's award in the special category of the handicapped teachers.

Another teacher, who has brought laurel to the district, is A.C Ganguli, a PGT in Zoology in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Roshnabad, Haridwar. Ganguli started his teaching career in Novodaya Vidyalayas and mostly worked in the tribal areas of Tripura and Sikkim before he was transferred to Mathura. He joined Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Haridwar in 1999.

Ganguly has been showing 100 per cent result in his subject for the last 15 years and was awarded Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti National Award in 2007 and has also been honoured with the commendation certificates several times from the commissioner of the Navodaya Vidyalayas for his excellent performance as a teacher. Asked about the traits of an ideal teacher, he says, "Besides having command on his subject and communicative skills, a good teacher should have a supportive attitude towards his students. His approach should never be negative. His relationship with his pupils should be friendly, so that they can discuss all their problems with him without hesitation," avers Ganguly. One more teacher of the state, who has made to the top honour, is Vasudev Pant, the principal of the BSM Inter College, Roorkee. Pant, who has been teaching Hindi and Sanskrit before he took over the reins of principalship in the leading college of Roorkee. Pant believes that a good teacher, besides imparting knowledge about his subject, should teach students about life and try to inculcate good sanskars in them.

"When I came to know that I have been selected for the top award for the teachers of the country, I could not believe it and was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. It is a life time achievement for me," says Pant. He has been selected for the coveted sobriquet on the basis of the academic performance and excellent discipline of the college. In his message to the teaching community on the special day of September 5, he says, "Teaching is the most noble profession. Recently there has been some erosion in the purity of the guru-shishya parampara. The society as a whole and the teaching community should strive to restore the lost glory of the this tradition. On their part the teachers should work hard with commitment to make their students better persons by developing their all round personality. If a teacher is sincere in offering his duties and is supportive to his students, he will definitively earn due respect from the society as well as from his disciples", says Pant.