Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

PM's inaugural speech at Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of Central Board of Secondary Education

~It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Central Board of Secondary Education and to declare open the Shiksha Sadan, the academic wing of the Board. I offer my hearty felicitations to all members of the CBSE family on this occasion. Over the years, many eminent educationists, administrators and teachers have contributed to the high reputation the Board enjoys today. This is an occasion to remember all of them with gratitude.

Your Board occupies an honoured – and if I may add, coveted – place in the landscape of school education in India. CBSE has become a byword for quality education. Yours is not only the largest educational board in the country, but it has also been in the forefront of setting high standards for secondary education. Those who have studied in schools affiliated to your Board have gone on to render distinguished service to the Nation in various capacities.

Another thing unique about your Board is that it provides a national identity to the students and teachers who wear the proud badge of CBSE. Of course, the Educational Boards of various States also impart a national outlook in their own way, even as they create understanding about the history, culture and ethos of their respective regions among their students. India is a wonderful illustration of unity in diversity. It is necessary for our boys and girls to develop, right from their school years, a sound knowledge of India’s age-old unity as well as her immense and manifold diversities.

Secondary education is an interesting phase of transition and development in a child’s life. It is a period when a student gradually leaves behind his or her childhood and eagerly awaits to become a young man or woman. It is a time when the body and the mind of the child grow rapidly, absorbing a wide variety of knowledge and influences. It is an impressionable age, which means that what the child receives at this age – intellectually as well emotionally -- stays with the person for long years. The child begins to understand the difference between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the just and the unjust.

Hence, secondary education should impart both knowledge and values to children, stimulating their intellectual capacity as well as enriching their personality with proper samskaras. I am told that modern educational experts also stress the importance of a child’s emotional development during the stage of secondary education. They emphasise that school education should give as much emphasis to the development of a child’s Emotional Quotient (EQ) as to his or her Intelligence Quotient (IQ). This is the age when students should be helped to internalize qualities such as courage, caring, sacrifice, voluntary service, standing up for the right cause, and cooperating with others for the common good.

This will enable the child to grow into a sound and well-balanced personality who can confidently cope with the challenges of life as a grown-up. Both parents and teachers have an important responsibility in this regard. I can tell you that, if I am what I am today, it is primarily because of the education I received – both at home and in the school. The fact that my father was a school teacher further helped me, both as a child and as a student.

Which brings me to a highly incisive observation contained in the Kothari Commission’s report on the development of education in India. The report says that ~the destiny of a nation is decided in her classrooms.~ How well said! I would like everybody associated with education – primary, secondary, college or university education – to mull over these profound words.

Speaking about classrooms, I have to say that the atmosphere in many schools is not quite conducive to learning as a joyful activity. These days both parents and teachers put too much stress on learning by rote, for the sole purpose of doing well in exams. This naturally makes studies a boring and burdensome activity for children. By their very nature, children are creative, they like spontaneity, and they like to enjoy whatever they do. Many of you might have seen the video song ~School Chale Hum~ which is being shown on TV channels. It very well captures the natural exuberance that a child feels at the thought of going to school, if studies are made a fun and playful activity. I congratulate the HRD Ministry for sponsoring this creative film.

When studies are made enjoyable, students absorb a hundred times more than if they are a dull and routine exercise. I think that our education planners, administrators, school managements and teachers should work together to change this situation.

Today I would like to touch upon another important task before us in the field of school education. And that is the urgent need to raise the standards of school education – both primary and secondary – in our country. When I see the high standards of CBSE schools, I am even more strongly reminded of the large gap between a small number of good schools and the large number of average schools. Today, understanding, concern and demand for quality education is growing in all sections of our society. Even poor parents want their child to get admission in a good school. But there just do not seem to be adequate number of good schools. The gap between demand and supply creates a lot of tension in families at the start of every school admission season. I can tell you that even ministers and MPs receive hundreds of requests for securing admission into Kendriya Vidayalayas and other good schools.

Clearly, we need to find a quick and effective solution to this problem. I am told that we have nearly a million secondary schools in the country, with a student strength that exceeds 10 million. This means that a large number of schools have the basic physical infrastructure. With some improvement in facilities, and greater focus on better teaching, it is possible to raise a large number of secondary schools to a much higher standard. Today parents are willing to pay more for quality education. As it is, many of them spend a good sum of money on private tuition for their children. Therefore, it is possible – certainly possible – to devise a plan to achieve a quantitative jump in quality in secondary education in a short time. I urge the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in cooperation with the education ministries of State Governments, to prepare and implement a strategy to achieve this goal.

As we all know, the HRD Ministry has shown exemplary determination to promote the cause of universalisation of elementary education by launching the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. It is the largest ever educational programme since Independence. I compliment Dr. Joshi and his colleagues for this ambitious project, which will make India a fully literate nation in a short time. The Ministry has shown that, where there is will, there is a way. Let us, therefore, show the same will and determination in vastly expanding the number of affordable secondary schools with high standards.

As the CBSE celebrates its Platinum Jubilee, it is also a time for it to chart its path for the future. I am told that the Ministry is planning to substantially increase the number of Kendriya Vidyalayas. It is good that partnership with reputed non-governmental educational institutions is also being contemplated for this purpose. I commend this initiative.

Another opportunity before the CBSE in the coming years is to expand its presence overseas. Quality education is rapidly emerging as a global enterprise. On the strength of the high reputation that CBSE enjoys, you can set up many more new schools, or provide affiliations, abroad, especially where there is a big concentration of people belonging to the Indian Diaspora.

I am confident that, in the years and decades to come, CBSE will grow from strength to strength, adopting all the new developments and technologies in education but always being rooted in the core purpose of education.

With these words, I once again congratulate your Board for crossing a proud milestone in its long and illustrious journey. May you cross many more milestones of achievement, and make a greater contribution to India’s emergence as a strong, prosperous and self-confident nation.

Thank you~.