It came to my notice through a Facebook post that a renowned scientist and former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Adbul Kalam passed away. When I looked upon his Wiki page I noticed this line:
Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Student Day by the United Nations.
The source backing that claim doesn't shed any light on whether UN recognized that day or not. On further research over web, I found various links which claimed this fact. It has to be noted that all the links that I came across were either from Indian people, Indian media, Indian websites, or things dominantly dealing with Indian matters. 'Indian' here refers to the South Asian and second largest populated Country in the world.
Failing to find an authentic source, I inquired about World Student Day. Here are some sources that I found:
- World Student Day (from IFES)
- Oct 17 – World Student Day (from Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship)
- World Student Day 2015 (from Languages Canada)
None of them mentioned the term United Nations (UN) or the name of Dr. Kalam anywhere in their text.
I lastly looked at the days of International Observance and found the only mention of the word 'Student' in this line:
November 17 International Students Day
The wiki page of International Students Day again has no mention of Dr. Kalam, neither it says that UN has officially observed it.
UNESCO also on its page of International Days has no mention of the word Student.
So, did UN observe Dr. Kalam's 79th or any birthday as World Student Day?
Here is the original question on site's Meta.