NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday conferred the prestigious National Teachers’ Award on 44 teachers from across the country, including from Haryana, Punjab, J&K and Ladakh, to recognise their contributions in the field of education.
The awardees included Mamta Paliwal (GGSSS Bhiwani, Haryana), Kamal Kishore Sharma (Government Senior Secondary School, Kandaghat, Himachal Pradesh), Jagtar Singh (Government Primary School, Khamano, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab), Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, (Government Primary School, Reasi, Jammu & Kashmir) and Muhammad Ali (Government Middle School, Kargil, Ladakh)
The award is given to accord public recognition to meritorious teachers working in elementary and secondary schools. The 44 awardees included three teachers from each Kerala and Rajasthan and two from each Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
A documentary film featuring each of the 44 awardees lauding their innovative and unique ways to help children learn in their respective schools and contributions to the education sector was also shown.
Bhiwani’s Mamta Paliwal used her creative skills to teach maths in a creative and simple way while Kandaghat’s Kamal Kishor Sharma used old furniture and infrastructure to create a mid-day meals’ room in his school.
Jagtar Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib used community funding to give his school a makeover and Reasi’s Sanjeev Kumar Sharma helped his school in a far-fledged area join the mainstream.
Kargil’s Muhammad Ali, with the help of a new experiment, “learning by doing”, stated language classes in his school.
Congratulating the awardees virtually, President Kovind said giving the awards to such accomplished teachers made him confident about the future of the country.
The President said that he would have felt happier had he been able to confer the awards in a normal way.
Talking about India’s progressive ways in the education sector the President said at a time when the World was debating whether the adage ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ was indeed effective, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was already practicing the anti-corporal punishment movement in his institution. An education based on love, not fear, is more effective and useful, the president said.
Welcoming the President, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan remembered the contributions of former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, renowned philosopher, a symbol of academics and education on whose birthday the day is celebrated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also address teachers, students, parents, and stakeholders associated with education on September 7 as part of the Shiksha Parv celebrations
The Prime Minister will launch five initiatives of the Department, including Indian Sign Language dictionary of 10,000 words, Talking Books (audiobooks for visually impaired), School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) of CBSE, NISTHA teachers’ training programme for NIPUN Bharat, and Vidyanjali Portal (for facilitating education volunteers/donors/CSR contributors for school development) on the day.