President Murmu confers National Teachers Awards 2023 to 75 educators

NEW DELHI: For Archana Nooguri, it was not easy to motivate tribal children in Telangana to come and study. Not only was she able to convince them, but she also arranged furniture, water, LED projectors, additional classes, and even computers – collected through donations – for her school.

As the school was some distance away for the poor students in the age group of 5 years to 10 years, she arranged with her own money an auto-rickshaw to pick and drop them.

The children not only learned to read and write, but she motivated them to even write in their language the stories of their forefathers. “The children’s stories would soon come out in a book form,” Nooguri, a head teacher in the primary school, told The New Indian Express. 

Nooguri is among the 75 teachers awarded the prestigious National Teachers Award by President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday during Teachers Day. Feeling proud of receiving the national award for the year 2023, Nooguri said that the honour would motivate her further to make young children from poor backgrounds learn how to read and write.

The 75 teachers include 50 school teachers, 13 teachers from higher education and 12 teachers from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Of the total awards, 18 went to teachers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. It was the first time that higher education and skill category teachers were also awarded along with school teachers. The award carries a certificate of merit, a cash award of Rs. 50,000 and a silver medal.

Among the awardees are Dr S.R. Mahadeva Prasanna, a professor from IIT Dharwad, Karnataka; Murahara Rao Uma Gandhi, a yoga instructor who teaches free to underprivileged people from Andhra; Shiyad S, a senior instructor who teaches welding in ITI, Palakkad, Kerala and is known for his innovation of coconut dehusking equipment; and Dr T Godwin Vedanayagam Rajkumar, a physical education teacher from Tamil Nadu.

Wheel-chair bound, Mekala Bhaskar Rao, told The New Indian Express that he never let his physical limitations stop him from working for his students and school. Andhra Pradesh-based Rao was solely responsible for providing school infrastructure worth Rs. 20 lakhs. The money helped build toilets, additional classrooms, a compound wall, a drinking water facility, etc.

As he was on wheel-chair, the president, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other dignitaries came down from the dais to honour him.

Describing teachers who “build the future of the nation,” Murmu said that quality education is considered the fundamental right of every child and the role of teachers is the most important in achieving these goals. She added that the importance of teachers as nation-builders has also been clearly stated in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.