Manipal Centre for Professional and Personal Development (MCPD) organized the first Teacher‘s Day celebration at Manipal University. Various constituent institutions and departments were having the yearly celebration until now. The Teachers Day function also coincided with the 1st Anniversary of MCPD. The event was held at 3 p.m at Counselling Hall, Manipal.edu building which saw a huge turnout of faculty members from various MU constituent institutions.
Yours truly was the emcee for the event and started the event by inviting for a soulful song ‘Jeena isi ka naam hai‘, a team of teachers led by Prof. Ullas Kamath, Dean of MMMC, Manipal Campus. For the initiation of the program Dr. K Ramnarayan, VC, MU, rendered an eloquent speech describing various aspects of teaching and role of a teacher. Dr. Ciraj A M then summarized various activities that MCPD had organized in the past year. Numerous workshops, leadership training modules, effectiveness workshops, and future plans of MCPD were delineated.
In the one year of existence of MCPD various people offered their unconditional support and that was recognized by the Director of MCPD, Dr. Sudhakar Nayak. Prof HS Ballal, Pro Chancellor, MU gave away certificates of appreciation to about forty such individuals. They included from the VC of MU to the Estate Officer to the non teaching staff at MCPD. It was followed by the Pro Chancellor addressing the gathering. He thanked MCPD for starting Teacher‘s Day celebration and exhorted teachers to be updated with recent advances in their areas of specialization.
Then was the time for the star attraction of the event, ‘On being a teacher’. Five eminent teachers spoke about their reflections on being a teacher. Prof. A Krishna Rao, introduced by Dr. Susan Benjamin, spoke about how it took him a lifetime to understand the core principles of teaching, which is that teaching should not be teacher centric. He urged MCPD to shorten that period for young teachers. Next to speak was Prof. LN Rao, who was introduced to the audience by Dr. Suma Nair. He spoke of his days at Mysore Medical College and emphasized on how important strictness and discipline is.
Next Teacher was Prof. Anice George, Dean of MCON, who was introduced by Dr. Linu Sara George. She recounted stories how the most important component ‘care’ for a student goes a long way in learning. She was followed by Prof. KJ Kamath of MIT, who was introduced by Registrar, MU Dr. GK Prabhu. He narrated a wonderful story harping on the point that a teacher is there to guide the path and just to show the light. Prof. Sundar Sarukkai, the next Teacher was introduced by Dr. Arathi Rao. He told the audience how essentially all teachers were philosophers to begin with and how teaching is an ethical job. He stressed that the important part is to realise how not to impose ones belief on students despite understanding that one is in a position of power.
Followed by a short interaction with the audience, Dr. Sudhakar Nayak, culminated the event with the story of Hiranyagarbha (the first word in the brass plaque that stands outside the Manipal.Edu building), which brought in the deep concept of learning what cannot be taught. The event was well managed with the help of numerous people including volunteers of MCPD. The maiden Teachers Day Celebration was well received by everyone.
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