45 teachers awarded National Teachers’ Award 2022 by President Murmu

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday presented the National Teachers’ Award 2022 to 45 teachers selected for their remarkable work in the field of education ranging from introducing innovative teaching methods in classrooms and encouraging students to take up kitchen gardening to enhancing enrolments among girls through community support.

President Murmu presented the awards at an event in New Delhi to mark Teachers’ Day observed on September 5 to mark the birthday of the first Vice-President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Here are the profiles of some of the winners:

Amit Kumar

Teacher, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Theog, Himachal Pradesh

Amit Kumar, a computer teacher, made learning science and math fun for students. He adopted a blended learning approach to put his computer education to the best use For students from rural areas, Kumar’s innovative approaches such as the Creation of Mind Maps by students, interactions of students with classrooms in various countries via Skype, collaborative learning using Wakelet and student voice empowerment for better engagement using Flipgrid (a video sharing app) are plane changing experiences.

Mamta Ahar

Assistant Teacher, Government Primary School P Sakharam Dubey, Raipur

Mamta Ahar is known for mobilizing community support for enhancing enrolment among girls in rural locations. She has taken special care to encourage children in different national integration activities. She believes in including the spirit of lifelong learning with the use of innovative teaching-learning practices through dedicated reading corners, use of technology, music in education and encouraging participation in sports. She has also implemented home counselling and her deeper involvement and encouragement in the school helped students’ holistic development.

Mohd Jabir

Teacher, Government Middle School Karith, Kargil, Ladakh

Mohd Jabir finds innovative ways to teach based on the principle of ‘no punishment to students’. He used the technique of ‘clapping while learning’ to teach English Phonetics, Grammar, Vocabulary and many others. Taking ‘joyful learning’ as his philosophy, he tried innovative ways of teaching such as prose singing strategy, learning with body language, teaching via slogan technique, language games, and teaching in an outdoor environment. He took several efforts during Covid-19 pandemic to ensure the teaching-learning process continues.

Arun Kumar Garg

Principal, GMSS Datewas, Mansa, Punjab

Arun Kumar Garg’s efforts to make the school more learner-friendly made headlines. He introduced innovative concepts such as kitchen gardening, subject labs and an education village have made the students practise sustainable lifestyles in his school. Being a mathematics teacher he innovated with pedagogy to make mathematics learning more joyful.

Gamchi Timre R Marak

Head Teacher, Educere Higher Secondary School, Samanda, Meghalaya

Having worked as an administrator in a school, Gamchi Timre R Marak noticed the challenges faced by children in the mining areas and decided to start a school of her own with local support and some other teachers who shared her commitment to teaching. She took to counselling, introducing innovative teaching programmes so that the children could be drawn out of the rampant alcoholism, domestic violence and early marriages. She introduced music, Taekwondo and agriculture to hold back these children.

Kandala Ramaiah

Teacher, ZP High School Abbapur, Telangana

Kandala Ramaiah is a teacher at Zilla Parishad High School at Abbapur in Telangana State. He used the local conditions to innovate in teaching mathematics. He introduced ‘Math Rangoli’ to teach shapes and algebraic tiling on the floor and wall painting with math concepts that go well with the local and limiting conditions of a government school with very good outcomes.

He also used a social media-based crowdfunding approach to improve his school infrastructure. He rephrased the government’s slogan ‘mana vuru, mana badi’ as ‘mana vuru, mana badi, mana gudi’ (‘our village, our school, our temple’) and that demonstrates his sincerity as a teacher.

Khursheed Ahmad

Teacher, Composite School Sahawa, Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

Popularising science by impactful teaching is the heart of Khursheed Ahmad’s teaching philosophy. Simple innovations in pedagogy such as using the elements of the periodic table as role numbers for students to make it easy for them to remember are simple but proved to be effective. With limited resources, he made science models such as heart, human circulatory system etc. with recycled material and made students do experiments such as chromatography.

Rajni Sharma

Teacher, Nigam Pratibha Vidyalaya, North West Delhi

Rajni Sharma has been awarded for her innovative work in reaching out to students to support their education during the pandemic as well as the normal time. She has developed interesting online material for use in virtual classes, of which most are self-developed materials including balgeet. She has mentored other teachers and contributed to raising environmental awareness. Her innovative way of integrated learning across subjects has been widely disseminated and appreciated.