President Shri Kovind presents National Awards to 46 teachers from across the country for their exceptional contribution

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind presented the National Award to 46 Teachers on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, in New Delhi today. The Union HRD Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, and the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri Sanjay Dhotre also grace the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that strong foundations of character-building are laid in schools. The main objective of education is to make the student a good human-being. And teachers do so by instilling honesty, discipline and integrity in their students. A good human-being possessing these values ​​will prove to be good in each and every sphere. By ensuring that their students become good human beings, teachers contribute in the nation-building process.

The President said that today, the world is moving from information era to knowledge era. However, knowledge alone will not be able to ensure the safety of human civilization. Along with knowledge, it is also necessary to have a conscience. Only when knowledge is combined with wisdom, it can solve human problems. In this globalized and highly competitive world, we have to establish a balance between ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘human compassion’ and between ‘digital learning’ and ‘character building’. Only on the basis of such rational knowledge, we can tackle the present challenges such as climate change, pollution, melting glaciers etc. Teachers can contribute significantly in the national campaign of water conservation by instilling in students the importance of water conservation.

The President urged teachers to build a new generation that is full of knowledge and wisdom, so that it can successfully address all the contemporary challenges.

The purpose of National Awards to Teachers is to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country and to honor those teachers who through their commitment and industry have not only improved the quality of school education but also enriched the lives of their students.

This year the online self nomination process followed by 3 tier selection process at District, State and National level has been completed. The Independent National Jury recommended name of 46 teachers. The criterion adopted was to select those teachers who had shown innovation in their work and had added value to the school and to their students. These nominated teachers gave a presentation before an independent Jury comprising a senior educationist. This ensured that all of them were given an opportunity to place before the jury their contribution and the work done by them. The basic premise now is that the new scheme should be transparent, fair, and reward demonstrated excellence and performance and has been inspired by recent innovations in major national awards. The award carries a Silver Medal, Certificate and Rs. 50,000/- as award money.

The features of the new scheme are as under:

Online self-nominations from teachers were invited on mhrd.gov.in. The Webportal was developed by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) and the entire software ran smoothly.
Applications were received online from teachers from all over the country.
All regular teachers were eligible and no minimum years of service was required. This enabled meritorious young teachers to apply.
The number of awards was rationalized to maximum of 47, thereby restoring the prestige of the awards.
No State, UT or Organization had a quota in the final selection. This encouraged them to compete for the awards.
An independent Jury at the National level made the final selection. The Jury reviewed the list of candidates forwarded by all States, UTs and Organisations. Each nominee made a presentation before the Jury, which made a final assessment and recommended 46 names for the Teachers Awards this year.

Smt.Rina Ray, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy and Shri R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Higher Education and other senior officials were present on the occasion.