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National Education Day 2024: Why it is celebrated on November 11?

He is said to be a key architect of independent India and he remained a prominent figure to establish IIT and UGC.

As India’s first education minister, Azad focused on providing education to the rural poor and girls in post-independence India. (Image: AI Generated)

Every year, India celebrates National Education Day to honour someone who was also the country’s first education minister. Apart from being the education minister, he was also the youngest president of the Indian National Congress (INC). Not only his leadership qualities but his visionary ideas and thoughts shaped modern India with the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).

National Education Day is celebrated to honour Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a prominent Indian scholar, freedom fighter, and educationist. His contributions to India’s independence and nation-building were immense, and his legacy endures in various fields. He is said to be a key architect of independent India and he remained a prominent figure to establish IIT and UGC.

The day is observed to honour the contributions of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to the education sector during his time as Education Minister. In 1920, he was elected to the foundation committee for establishing Jamia Millia Islamia in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. He later played a crucial role in relocating the university campus to New Delhi in 1934, and today, the main gate of the campus bears his name.

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As India’s first education minister, he focused on providing education to the rural poor and girls in post-independence India. His priorities also included promoting adult literacy, ensuring free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14, expanding universal primary education, and diversifying secondary education with an emphasis on vocational training.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s contributions went far beyond the freedom movement. His vision for an educated, secular, and unified India continues to shape the country’s progress in many ways.

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