New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the National Teachers' Award 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 award for their innovations and unique contribution to education in the country. 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 in the list of the award winners.
The list of awardees that received the award 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, A Devendra 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 Department of Automatic Energy were also conferred with the award.
Two teachers from Kendriya Vidyalayas- Aiyer Revathy Rajaram, Kendriya Vidyalaya MEG, Karnataka and Remya Parameswar Iyer, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara, Assam were also honored.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry had invited nominations for the prestigious award between May 6 and June 25, from which the teachers were selected based on a three-tier process.
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 an independent Jury comprising of a senior educationist. The prestigious award carries a silver medal, certificate and Rs 50,000 as award money.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also interacted with the teachers before leaving for 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.
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