Only teachers serving in hard areas should be honoured: Virbhadra Singh

There has been a notable absentee of teachers from mountainous and tribal areas in the list of awardees, said Virbhadra

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said only those teachers should be honoured who are serving in remote and far-flung areas.

Speaking at a state-level function here to mark Teachers' Day, the Chief Minister said: "Only those teachers who are willingly serving in remote and far-flung areas of the state and have worked in difficult circumstances should be honoured on such occasions."

He said it has been observed that none of the teachers who has been teaching with commitment for many years in schools in hard, mountainous and tribal areas was in the list of awardees.

Virbhadra Singh directed the education department to keep in mind the services of those teachers also who were committed to their profession and were working in tough areas rather than wasting their time in getting postings in the towns and cities.

He also listed the name of the remote and tribal areas from where none of the teachers was in the list of awardees and directed the department to consider the services of such teachers in future.

Emphasising the need to introspect the role of teachers in the present day context and their contribution to the society, the octogenarian Chief Minister said there was a need for value-based education.

"We should take inspiration from the age-old 'Guru-Shishya Parampara' (teacher-disciple tradition) where the level of respect for the teachers and the commitment of a teacher towards the students is highly quoted," he said.

The Chief Minister said the motive of the teachers should not be to create students in their own image but to develop students who can create their own personality.

"I believe there is no other profession in the world that is more important to society than that of a teacher," he said.