National Education Day 2020: History And Significance Of The Day

National Education Day 2020: Every year, India celebrates National Education Day on November 11 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

New Delhi: Every year, India celebrates National Education Day on November 11 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad -- the first Union Education Minister of India. A freedom fighter, scholar and eminent educationist, Maulana Azad was a key architect of Independent India who was responsible for setting up apex education bodies like AICTE and UGC. On National Education Day, India remembers Maulana Azad’s contributions to nation-building. The Central Government, with a resolution on September 11, 2008, declared November 11 as National Education Day. The first National Education Day celebrations were inaugurated by then President of India Pratibha Patil on November 11, 2008 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. According to historians, Maulana Azad "laid the base for higher education and for technological and scientific research and education that was instrumental in industrialisation and the recent emergence of knowledge-based industries". The first Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kharagpur, was established by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. 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." Apart from IIT Kharagpur, University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council For Technical Education, Maulana Abdul 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 Bharat Ratna -- India’s highest civilian award -- in 1992.