In India, the National Education Day is celebrated on 11 November every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India. The day was announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on 11 September 2008. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad served as education minister from 15 August 1947 to 2 February 1958.
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History of National Education Day:
On 11 September 2008, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has announced to commemorate the birthday of the great person by recalling the contribution of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in the field of education by celebrating 11 November as National Education Day. Since 2008, every year in India, National Education Day is celebrated without declaring it a holiday.
About Maulana Abul Kalam Azad:
- Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1888. His mother was an Arab and the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad Zaher Watri and Azad’s father, Maulana Khairuddin, was a Bengali Muslim of Afghan origins who came to Arab during the Sepoy Mutiny and proceeded to Mecca and settled there.
- He came back to Calcutta with his family in 1890 when Abul Kalam was two years old. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s contributions in the field of education, nation-building, and institution-building are exemplary.
- He is the key architect of education in India. He was awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously, India’s highest civilian honour in 1992.