LM Dadha Senior Secondary School celebrated its 35th Annual Day on 5 September 2011. N Sankar was the chief guest on this occasion. Excerpts from his speech:
“Teachers Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the philosopher-statesman, who rose to become the second President of India, and above all, a teacher par excellence.
I would first like to record my appreciation of the significant values of charity and social service that this school represents. Your school was founded to perpetuate the memory of two eminent citizens, Shri Lalchand Dadha, a true philanthropist, and his worthy son, Shri Milapchand Dadha.
What is education? It is not just attending school for twelve or sixteen years; it is not just learning of lessons by rote and getting high marks in Schoolan examination. Education is far, far more than that. The purpose of education is, to paraphrase Swami Vivekananda, ‘The making of a Man’.
(l to r): TK Niranjana, Principal, S Mohanchand Dadha, Chairman, N Sankar, Chairman, The Sanmar Group, M Mahendra Dadha, Vice Chairman and Shobha Krishnan, Correspondent.
Apart from teaching languages, mathematics, sciences, history and what have you, schools should engender moral and ethical values in their students. Whether it is Hindu, Christian or Muslim or what have you. All these traditions espouse the right values.
While education itself should be secular, the value systems can be based on any of these traditions. The schools should also inculcate in their students a strong sense of pride in the national culture, and make them better citizens of India.
Karthick Rajasekar handed over a cheque for Rs 12 Lakh to the District Collector, Cuddalore, in the presence of NS Mohan and Dr Kamalakannan, Joint Director (Health Services), towards Renovation of Male Surgical Ward in Government Headquarters Hospital, Cuddalore, on 13 July 2011.
Moral education is another important aspect that needs to be imparted by schools. A good grounding in ethics hopefully will help your generation avoid the various scandals that we are now faced with on a daily basis.
I have one personal suggestion for you. One of our senior executives, who sadly passed a few years ago, was probably the most knowledgeable person I have come across in all technical fields, be it mechanical, electrical, computers, or what have you. When I asked him once how he broad-based his knowledge, he said, “I make it a point to learn one new thing every day”. I recommend that to each of you.
… There is no doubt that teachers are some of the most important people in our lives. While the institution can provide all the infrastructure and other wherewithal, ultimately it is the teacher who imparts knowledge, values and skills in the students.
The most successful teacher is the one who is remembered with fondness and appreciation by the most students. You are still young, but take it from me and others here who belong to an earlier generation, we may forget many people we come in contact with in our lives, but the people we remember best and longest are the teachers who stand out from the days of our education. I had the privilege of having Shri Kuruvila Jacob, one of the most eminent Indian educators of the twentieth century, as my school Principal. He had a successful career spanning schools in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bombay.
We have an annual lecture in his memory in Chennai, and when you go there the sort of people who turn up and the stories they exchange of him are really heartwarming. Central ministers, senior bureaucrats, successful businessmen, all of them come together and exchange stories of ‘Sir’ – Mr Kuruvila Jacob. This is really a teacher’s true wealth. Teachers too remember and take pride in the students that pass through their hands, and they take pride in their achievements.
Just imagine the pride that the nuns who taught our Chief Minister in Church Park would have in her, or Ramakant Achrekar’s pride in the achievements of Sachin Tendulkar, whom he coached in his early days, or Indra Nooyi’s teacher’s pride when she became the CEO of PepsiCo, one of the largest corporations of America. A good teacher would value these successes of their students as their most valuable legacy. These are valuable years you are going through now – far more valuable than you today realise. Cherish them, and get the most of them. You are fortunate to be enrolled in a progressive educational institution supported by true philanthropists. Make the most of it”.
The Care Air Centre at Mettur Plant II was inaugurated by Mohan Naidu, JCEE, TNPCB, Chennai, and that of Mettur Plant III by A Thangapandian, DEE, TNPCB, Salem, on 30 March 2011. With this all Ambient Air quality monitoring parameters, namely Chlorine and VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) for Plants II and III, SOx, NOx and SPM at Coal Power Plant and HF at Plant I are connected with the Central Control Centre at TNPCB, Chennai online.