find two things we appreciate about our constitution?class 9th
Answers
Answer:How informed are you about the Constitution of India?
While interacting with a group of school teachers recently, I tried to assess their knowledge of the Constitution of India by asking them a few questions. Who is its architect? When did it come into effect? How many Articles and Schedules are there in the Constitution? What is stated in the Preamble to the Constitution of India? Do you know your Constitutional rights? The teachers’ responses to these questions revealed their lack of knowledge about it. If this sample were a representative of the whole teaching community in India, it could be considered an unhealthy trend. If teachers’ knowledge about the Constitution of India is bad, the logical conclusion is that students’ knowledge about it must be worse. A month ago, while laying the foundation stone of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Memorial in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that this year onwards, November 26 would be observed as Constitution Day and he added saying that on that day, school children would be taught about the Constitution and Dr. Ambedkar. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in its recent circular has instructed all schools to conduct activities to observe the first Constitution Day. It is a good move but mere observance of the day will not suffice. What is important is incorporating Constitution education in the school curriculum. Here, the term ‘Constitution education’ does not imply teaching students the A to Z of the Constitution or enabling them to become experts in it. Rather, it implies exposing them to the Constitution, teaching them its salient features, enlightening them about their fundamental rights, enabling them to critically evaluate the relevance of various Articles, shaping their mind to develop a positive attitude towards it and helping them appreciate the wisdom found in it. Why is Constitution education important? In every country across the globe, people are expected to revere their Constitution and feel that it is their duty to know what is in it. It is a vital document that is the basis of all laws enacted by any government in power. It is based on noble principles. As John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, rightly said, “The Constitution is colour blind, and it neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”
The Constitution of India, which has borrowed many features from different countries such as the U.S., the U.K., France, Japan, Germany, the former Soviet Union (USSR) and a few other countries, besides defining the power of the government, spells out the rights and duties of the citizen. As it protects the rights of all the citizens and serves as the framework for good governance, it functions as a social contract between the government and the people governed. According to Dr. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India, “The Constitution is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime.”
Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. It is the responsibility of the teaching community to educate students about the Constitution and make them informed citizens. Constitution Day is a one-day affair with some activities but Constitution education is a process leading to right thinking and noble behaviour. Mere Constitutional knowledge, disseminated through certain activities such as reading out the Preamble, conducting quiz or essay competitions in schools, will not help students become patriotic citizens who accept their fellow citizens as they are regardless of their caste, creed and social status and consider everyone equal. It is their proper understanding of the Constitution, their right attitude towards it, their ability to interpret it to the current situation and their willingness to keep its spirit alive which will make them patriotic.
How can we lay the foundation for the first Constitution Day and make it a meaningful first step for a great journey? Here are some suggestions.
Educational institutions can initiate purposeful discussions on the significance of incorporating Constitution education in the curriculum and teachers can come up with some innovative ideas which can be sent to the HRD ministry so that it can give shape to the body of ideas.
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