Instituted in 1958, the National Award For Teachers is given away by the President of India on Teacher’s Day every year. It is done in recognition of meritorious educators working in primary, middle and secondary schools. Teachers who have gone the extra mile to place emphasis on the importance of education and introduced new methods of imparting knowledge are the recipients of the awards.
For 50-year-old Hillary Erick, from Chowra island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, working as a head master in Government Mittle school, Kuitasuk involved increasing the number of tribal students in his school by door-to-door visits to coax parents. Hillary worked in the Campeltay area in Nicobar island which falls on the Western coast. The location posed a lot of transport problem, due to which children missed school. Knocking on each door he convinced parents to enroll them. in school.
Teaching regular children was never a challenge for Gajanand Munde, so the 42-year-old from Buldana District, Maharashtra, took to imparting knowledge to mentally challenged children through Sri Gajanand Maharaj, an NGO. Along with teaching the children self-help skills, communication and vocational training. The teacher is also researching on rehabilitation of mentally challenged children and the psychology of parents while dealing with special children.
As the the principal of a government school Pudukkottai district, Tamil Nadu, 37-year-old Keruppaiyan always believed in giving more to students than just knowledge from the books. Since 1988 he worked for the education and enrollment of the differently abled students in rural areas. He selected Naduvaseal district and targeted to enroll all the dropouts, children working as labourers, women in the area into his school. He also introduced breakfast scheme in his school as 99.6% children in that area were affected with anemia. He also collected donations and bought 14 computers for his school along with establishing smart class, a language lab and internet facility in the school, targeted to attract more number of students.
As the science teacher in a government school in Pheru Chack in J&K Seema Sharma lives a double life. She not only teaches students in her school, the 42-year-old also adopts two children from BPL families each year and bear expenses for their education. She also encourage activity based learning in school which keeps the students interested in studies and encourage them to learn more. “What needs to change in this system is the way people look at government school education. Parents want kids to go to English schools.
60-year-old Shri Pyare Lal from Bulandshahr will receive an award for outstanding performance in extra curricular activities and teaching. Working as a teacher in Prarthmik Vidyalaya, Keerat in UP, he worked mainly to get the dropouts back to school. Every year 198 dropouts were brought back to the school and given education free of cost. He also went around the village and adjoining districts to educate parents on the importance of school education.
Zahoor Ahmad Shah, 49, teaches English and Urdu at the Government Boys Higher Secondary school in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir. He met with an accident in 1995 and a failed spinal cord operation left him physically challenged for the rest of his life but that did not deter his conviction to teach students. “I have never been late to work despite my injury,” he said. He rues the lack of accountability and funds in the education sector as also the shortage of teachers in most schools.
A detour from his initial career plan to be a politician only did good for Lalrin MawiN, a teacher from Mizoram. “I wanted to be a politician but became a teacher by accident. He says his dedication towards teaching students for the past 31 years has not decreased at all and is motivated by his students at the Baptist Higher Secondary School, in Serkawn, Mizoram.
Amuda Devi, 49, is a primary school teacher in Tamil Nadu’s Kasampatty. Devi identified slow learners in her school and decided to give them individual attention in order to improve their IQ level. Simultaneously, she focused on sanitary development in schools across the district. Devi also worked for raising the literacy level by encouraging dropouts to join school, reducing the number of dropouts to 10 per cent.
M Balachandran Nair, was inspired by his tutors at school to take up teaching as a profession. The 53-year-old teaches at the Government Senior Secondary school in Kavaratti, Lakshadweep. Originally from Kerala, he has spent the last 26 years teaching Malayalam in Kavaratti. Nair has been presented the Star Teacher Status of Lakshadweep in 2008. He believes that innovation and new ideas are the need of the hour in the education sector, especially in Lakshadweep.
As a physical education teacher Laxman Das Vishnu is proud that students taught by him represented the national hockey team. The 40-year-old sports teacher at the government higher secondary school in Palana Kalan, Udaipur has trained 120 students from his school, who played for the state team. “The school currently has a minimum fund of about Rs 2,000 for sports. This needs to be increased,” says Laxman Das.
For Urmila Sawal, it has been a daunting task for 30 years to better the dropout rate in the government school in Keoghar district of Orissa, where she works as a teacher. “The problem of dropouts needs to be tackled. In my school, lots of children drop out or do not come often because they are very poor,” said the 53-year-old.
Kian Kumar Rawal, 49, says he is privileged to be from a family of teachers. He teaches at Sri MB Karnavat School in Gujarat. Both his parents were teachers and now his son has followed suit. He says that the examination methods of the country need a change and advocated open book examination system for the overall development of students.
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