Teachers Day 2024: Why Teacher's Day is celebrated on September 5, history and significance

Teachers Day is celebrated on September 5th in India and is a day to express the love and gratitude we feel towards those who have taught us in life, from school teachers to college professors to our tutors or trainers in fields other than acadamics.

It is not to be confused with Guru Purnima, a more Hindu-Buddhist festival which also celebrates the student-teacher relationship.

Why 5th September?
5 September 1888 was the birth day of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice President and the second President of India. Teacher's day is celebrated on his birth anniversary.

Teachers Day - History
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a respected Academic before he got into politics. He was a Professor at many colleges and even represented the University of Calcutta at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire and the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University.

He was Principal at Harris Manchester College, Oxford and would lecture the University of Oxford students on Comparative Religion.

The story goes that after he was President of India, some old students and friends asked him to allow them to celebrate his birthday wi which he answered, "Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if September 5th is observed as Teachers' Day."

Ever since then his birthday has been celebrated as Teachers' Day in India.

Teachers Day - Significance
Teachers educate us where our family or other carers can not. Their role in any society is irreplaceable as they can shape the future of their society by with the impact they have on their students. Though he was given the honour of being President, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had been a teacher himself and clearly understood the power that lay in teachers when it came to shaping a nation and thus remembered to honour teachers on his birthday.