New Assam website for celebrating Teachers' Day

The Assam government on Wednesday launched a new website, www.lets-celebrate-teachersday-together.in, in a bid to celebrate Teachers' Day that falls on September 5 in a more collaborative manner.

The website was launched by Assam Chief Secretary V.K. Pipersenia in the presence of journalists and state education and other government officials at NeDFI House here.

The birth anniversary of India's second president, academic and philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is celebrated as Teachers' Day.

Though it is not a holiday, classes in schools across India are not held as usual but are replaced by other celebratory events and thanks and remembrances.

"Teachers' Day is a day that is celebrated to appreciate and honour teachers for their contribution to society as well as imparting knowledge, guiding and shaping the minds and careers of students," said a post on the new website.

"Teachers play a major role in influencing and moulding a child's life as children in their formative and impressionable years spend a lot of time at school. Whatever a child learns at this time stays with him all his life."

Assam is organising various events on September 5 headed by the education minister at the state level. At the district level, deputy commissioners will head the activities while at the institutional level, principals and headmasters will look over the celebrations, according to information on the new website.

Among the events listed on the website are processions by students, competitions on quotations, cultural functions, essay and painting competitions.

Quotation competitions will include mythological and religious texts like the Kirtan, the Quran, the Bible and religious texts of Buddhism and Jainism.

The state government also plans to create a teachers' welfare fund.

Lectures by eminent people on selected topics in various educational institutions are being planned, according to the website.

Apart from felicitating teachers, the government is also seeking public sponsorship for awarding teachers annually.

On September 5, there will also be discussions on the significance of Teachers' Day across radio and TV channels in the state.