National Education Day: Remembering Maulana Abul Kalam Azad - India’s First Education Minister

National Education Day is celebrated on November 11 in India every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of the country's first Education Minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

National Education Day is celebrated on November 11 in India every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of the country's first Education Minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. (Getty images)

New Delhi: National Education Day is celebrated on November 11 in India every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of the country's first Education Minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. A freedom fighter, renowned writer, poet, and journalist Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin was born on November 11, 1888. His complete name was - Maulana Sayyid Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad. He was the first education minister of independent India and served from August 15, 1947 to February 2, 1958. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master' and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India. The day is also seen as an occasion to remember Azad's contribution in laying the foundations of the education system in an independent India and evaluating and improving the country's current performance in the field. The Ministry of Human Resource Development today took to their official Twitter handle to write about the day, posting, "Celebrating National Education Day today! Remembering India's 1st Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Ji, Freedom Fighter, Indian scholar & the biggest advocate of #education for women on his birth anniversary. #EducationEnlightens."

Celebrating National Education Day today!

Remembering India's 1st Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Ji, Freedom Fighter, Indian scholar & the biggest advocate of #education for women on his birth anniversary. #EducationEnlightens pic.twitter.com/vzPdIoUKrb — Ministry of HRD (@HRDMinistry) November 11, 2019

Here are some memorable quotes by Maulana Azad that inspires all of us even today • Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career. • Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model. • Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended. • To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal. • Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness. • As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me. • We have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. • You have to dream before your dreams can come true. • Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? • The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.