Why September 5 is celebrated as teachers day?

Posted by surendra sharma on September 5th, 2022

September 5 is the birth anniversary of the first Vice President & second president of India Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great philosopher, teacher and scholar. To honour his life and work, and approach towards education and students, the day is observed as Teachers’ Day in India.

India has been celebrating September 5 as Teachers’ Day since 1962.

Born in a poor Telugu Brahmin family, Radhakrishnan completed his entire education through scholarships. He possessed a master’s degree in Philosophy and authored the book ‘The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore’ in 1917. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936 and the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1939, succeeding Madan Mohan Malviya.

He went on to teach at Chennai’s Presidency College and Calcutta University. In 1931, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna — the highest civilian award in India in 1954. He was admitted as an honorary member of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963.

During his lifetime, Dr Radhakrishnan was a meritorious student, a celebrated teacher among students. It is said that while he was serving as the second President of India in 1962, his students approached him to seek permission to celebrate his birthday – September 5 – as a special day. To this, Dr Radhakrishnan instead made a request to observe September 5 as Teachers’ Day, to recognise the contribution of teachers to the society.