Philosopher-philanthropist and a teacher par excellence, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birth anniversary in the Capital was marked by demonstrations, protests, boycotts and court arrests. The day was observed as `black day' by several organisations of teachers and students for non-payment of salaries, commercialisation of education and provision of reservation.

Thousands of Dalit teachers from Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Directorate of Education, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Delhi University boycotted the day to press for their fundamental right of reservation.

The teachers under the aegis of ``joint schedule castes/schedule tribes teachers front of Delhi' later submitted a memorandum to the President.In this background came a passionate call from Rashtrapati Bhavanasking teachers to set an example of order and discipline in seeking solutions to their problems ``however legitimate they may be''.

``There is an urgent need to restore and renew the image of the teacher as a role model and a standard setter,'' President K R Narayanan said in his speech, apparently referring to the three-week old university and college teachers strike.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman said that the prepared speech of the President, who did not speak at the function, should be treated as read.Narayanan said that at the same time society and state must address the problems of the teachers earnestly and in time, with sympathy and understanding ``realizing that they are the ones charged with the responsibility of fashioning the future generations.''

Stating that the country scaled peaks of excellence in many areas of development but ranked very low in human development, the president said: ``Even though we have provided in our constitution the need for universalisation of primary educationand stepped up campaigns for literacy, 48 per cent of our people are unlettered.''

National awardees hold up function

A brief announcement that the President Narayanan will not be able to present all the national awards to teachers created a commotion at Vigyan Bhawan today with teachers insisting on receiving the prestigious awards personally from the president.

The trouble began before the arrival of the President when the organisers announced that due to pressing engagements Narayanan would only hand over certificates of honour to the scholars of languages and the national awards to over 300 teachers would be given by the Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

Sensing the mood of the slogan-shouting teachers assembled to get the awards from all over the country, Education Secretary P R Dasgupta and other senior officials immediately got in touch with Rashtrapati Bhavan to sort out the matter.

In the midst of din, an angry awardee said ``we will get our recognition onlyfrom the President. It gives us immense pride and it is the President's awards and not the minister's''.

The president finally gave away all the awards - certificates of honour to 22 scholars in Sankrit, Pali, Arabic and Persian and national awards to 302 teachers.