Happy World Teacher’s Day!
Have you ever thought how your life would be if you didn’t have those wonderful teachers at school, college, and university? I bet you haven’t. “Teacher” is not someone who just teaches, but who also helps the student to become “Human”. The impact of the teachers lingers in our lives even after we graduate.
Every year World Teacher’s Day is held on 5th October throughout the world. Its aim is to mobilize support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers. According to UNESCO, World Teachers' Day represents a significant token of the awareness, understanding and appreciation displayed for the vital contribution that teachers make to education and development.
Although Bangladesh is a small country, but we are very lucky that we have many wonderful teachers in our country now and also in the past. Since the liberation war till now, we always have had some great people to guide us towards the right path.
During the Liberation war, a lot of respected teachers lost their lives which left our nation bereft.Many renowned teachers like Munier Choudhury, Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee, Dr. Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, Dr. Govinda Chandra Dev, Dr. Anwar Pasha, Dr. Mufazzal Haider Chowdhury were killed on 14th December, 1971 which is now The Martyred Intellectuals Day.
On a happier note let us celebrate the great teachers our generation had the good fortune of knowing. We have Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Dr. Kabir Chowdhury, Dr. Mizanur Rahman, Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Dr. Manzoorul Islam, Dr. Anisuzzaman, Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Dr. Ainun Nishat, Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqui and many more educationist. Not only in education, but also in other aspects like culture and philanthropy, we have a lot of respected teachers. Mustafa Monowar, Sanjida Khatun, Ferdous Ara Begum are some renowned cultural people who taught us and are teaching us to hold on to our culture.
The list of the people who are building our society is a long one! In addition, let us not forget the teachers who are the heart of more than a million schools, colleges, and universities in Bangladesh. To celebrate teachers day lets know about some teachers from past and present.
Dr. Kabir Chowdhury (9 February 1923 – 13 December 2011)
Dr. Kabir Chowdhury was a well-known academic, essayist, translator, cultural worker, civil society activist and a pioneer in the movement against fundamentalism in Bangladesh. He was inducted as National Professor of Bangladesh in 1998. Dr. Kabir taught at Dhaka University as a Professor of English for thirty years. He has written a lot on peace and conflict resolution through discussion and has tried to promote these values by his work as a teacher and as an administrator. He has also written extensively on anti-fundamentalism, religious fanaticism and communalism, and has stressed the need for developing broad human values and for realizing the importance of cultural diversity, and the imperatives for developing a pluralistic society.
Munier Choudhury (27 November 1925 – 14 December 1971)
Munier Choudhury was a Bangladeshi educationist, playwright, and literary critic. He joined the Dhaka University in 1950 and taught both Bangla and English. He was passionately devoted to Bangla language and culture, and courted imprisonment in 1952 for his participation in the Bangla language movement. There he wrote his famous play “Kabar” which is a translation of George Bernard Shaw’s “Bury the Dead”.
Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal
Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (born 23 December 1952) is a Bangladeshi author of science fiction and children's literature. He is a professor of computer science and engineering and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Dr. Iqbal obtained his PhD from university of Washington, and after coming back to Bangladesh, he joined SUST. Dr. Iqbal has a lot of contribution in making the university one of the best universities in Bangladesh.
Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqui
Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqui is one of the renowned educationists of Bangladesh. He has experience of more 40 years of being a researcher, business executive and international consultant. He taught at IBA, Dhaka University, BRAC University and was Vice Chancellor of North South University. Dr. Siddiqi worked as an international consultant to many renowned organizations including the World Bank.
Dr. Ainun Nishat (April 29, 1948)
Ainun Nishat was the Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, and is deemed as a water resource and climate change specialist. He represented Bangladesh at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2009, among other international climate-related conferences. He was a lecturer at BUET, and after retiring from BUET, he joined IUCN.
As stated earlier, there are many respected people in Bangladesh who are not actively teaching in any educational institutions but contributing a lot to our nation culturally. Mustafa Monowar, Ferdous Ara Begum, Sanjida Khatun, Sadi Mohammad are some of them.
Mustafa Monowar (1935)
Mustafa Monowar is one of the famous artists of Bangladesh. Mostly children know him as “Shilpi Bhai”. He is also known as the “Puppet Man” of Bangladesh because of his famous puppet show broadcasted on Bangladesh Television. He contributed a lot for children to develop their imaginations. He organized a lot of drawing competitions throughout the country.
Dr. Sanjida Khatun (4th April, 1932)
Sanjida Khatun is a famous musician, educationist and researcher, recently she has been given lifetime achievement award for her contribution in cultural aspects of Bangladesh. She studied at Vishya Bharati University. Then she joined Dhaka University as Bangla Literature teacher. She is the current president of “Chayanot”, a cultural organization which was founded in 1961.
Teachers are the main contributors of education. They pass on knowledge and values in every generation. They play crucial roles in developing people’s mind. We consider them as our nation builders.
We wish a very Happy Teachers’ Day to all our teachers.
