New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the National Awards to 46 teachers at Vigyan Bhawan here on Thursday on the occasion of Teachers' Day.
Teachers from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Rajasthan and Jharkhand received the prestigious awards for their innovation and making their classes interesting. Officials said that this is for the first time that a teacher from an army school, which is governed by the Defence Ministry, has also been included to the list of the award winners.
The national-level awards are given to teachers on this special occasion to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country and to honour those who have not only improved the quality of school education but also enriched the lives of their students.
The list of awardees includes Rajesh Kumar of Government Senior Secondary School Mohanpur, Haryana, Vikas Mahajan, Government Boys Senior Secondary School Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, Gurnam Singh, Government Upper Primary School Lahari, Jammu & Kashmir, Kalpana Sharma, Swani Vivekanand Government Model School Banera, Rajasthan, Lalit Mehta, Government Higher Secondary School of Excellence, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh,ADevendra Kumar, Shaheed Bhai Bal Mukund Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Delhi, Virendra Shantubhai Patel, Government Upper Primary School Bhimpore Ashramshala, Daman & Diu and R.C. Suvarna Fonseca Carmel Higher Secondary, Goa.
Apart from these, Bijay Kumar Pandey, an English teacher of Sainik school, Ambikapur, Chattisgarh and A. Jubin Geol, from Automotive Energy Central School, Mumbai, under under Department of Automatic Energy were also conferred with the awards.
The award winners also included two teachers from Kendriya Vidyalayas - Aiyer Revathy Rajaram, Kendriya Vidyalaya MEG, Karnataka and Remya Parameswar Iyer, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara, Assam.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry had invited nominations for the prestigious awards between May 6 and June 25, from which the teachers were selected on the basis of a three-tier process.
The teachers were first required to nominate themselves online, following which the district, state and the national level committees selected them.
The nominated teachers gave a presentation before the independent Jury comprising a senior educationist. The prestigious award carries a silver medal, certificate and Rs 50,000 as award money.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had interacted with the teachers before his 36-hour visit to Russia.
"Teachers Day greetings to everyone. India pays tributes to Dr S Radhakrishnan, an exceptional teacher and mentor, on his Jayanti," Modi tweeted on Thursday morning.
On Tuesday, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' interacted with the teachers and encouraged them to play a pivotal role in the holistic development of the children. He equated the selection procedure to that of the Padma Awards and asked the teachers to help the ministry in implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) properly.
--IANS
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