– Mita Mukherjee

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has asked its affiliated to schools to administer a special pledge for teachers on September 5 as a part of its initiative to celebrate Teachers’ Day this year.

Teachers will have to take a pledge to affirm “teachers’ commitment, fairness, integrity, holistic education, and nation building,” according to a CISCE circular sent to heads of all ICSE schools on Thursday evening.

“On this Teachers Day, ….. I solemnly pledge to uphold the highest standards of commitment, fairness, and integrity in my profession. I dedicate myself to the holistic development of every student, nurturing their intellectual, emotional, moral and creative potential. With dedication and compassion I shall guide them to become responsible citizens and future leaders…..
I pledge to remain steadfast in my duty, embracing lifelong learning and inspiring my students to pursue excellence with values, empathy and purpose,” the September 5 oath sent to the schools read.

The celebrations themed on “Inspiring Minds, Building the Nation” will also include short poetry competitions for students on September 3 at 10 am at the individual institutions for two categories of students including category I for students of IX and X and category II for participants from classes XI and XII.

The heads of individual schools will set up juries of three teachers who will evaluate the entries based in five criteria suggested by the council.
The five criteria suggested by the council on the basis of which the selected poems are to be assessed include, creativity and originality, relevance of the theme, language and expression, structure and form and emotional and aesthetic appeal.
The schools will have to submit the selected entries to the council on September 5.

The council will appoint seperate panels to evaluate the selected poems from two categories. The final evaluation will be done by the Council and the results will be declared on September 15, the council said.
Many schools welcomed the council’s first ever initiative to motivate teachers, though many schools said teachers were already aware about their responsibility.

“There is no doubt that teachers are very very committed individuals but this commitment which was something internal will now become something shared and celebrated by the society,” Rodney Borneo, principal of St Augustine’s Day School, Shyamnagar in Bengal told EducationWorld.