15th October: World Students Day

World Student’s Day 2019: Like every year, the United Nations will celebrate the birth anniversary of the former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam as World Students’ Day. The late leader was known for his love for students and focus on promoting education. To honour him, the United Nations declared his birthday (October 15) as ‘World Students’ Day’ in 2010.

“The best brains of the nation may be found on the last benches of the classroom.”

Kalam, a renowned scientist, made India proud with his missile defence program, but his favourite job was teaching and that’s how he wanted the world to remember him. Such was his aura that students across the nation looked up to him. His quotes are still shared on social networking sites.

In the President’s Address at the presentation of National Award to Teachers in 2006, he said, “Teachers have to realize that they are the builders of the society. The society can be built only when the students are made proficient in their subjects. In addition they have to provide a vision for life to the students and also inculcate the fundamentals of values which he should practice in the years to come.”

He was India’s 11th President, who served from 2002 to 2007, and was widely referred to as the people’s President besides being credited for India’s civilian space programme and military missile systems.