Delhi: 122 educators, mostly from govt schools, selected for teachers’ awards

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the number of awards was increased to 122 from 103 last year to recognise the work of more teachers.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia announced that 122 teachers in the Capital will be felicitated at the state teachers’ award on Sunday, adding that the number of awardees has been increased from 103 last year. “Since 2016, we have been conducting teachers’ awards on a grand scale instead of keeping it as a departmental activity. This year, we increased the number of awards from 103 to 122 to recognise the work of more teachers,” said Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio.

Music teacher Rajkumar has received many laurels for sitar. (Sourced)

Among the awardees are an IIT graduate who chose to teach in government schools, a teacher who roped in informal workers to track her students, a head of school who arranged smartphones for over 300 students, and a teacher-cum-sitar player who made the education department proud with his accolades.

“Since 2016, we have been conducting teachers’ awards on a grand scale instead of keeping it as a departmental activity. This year, we increased the number of awards from 103 to 122 to recognise the work of more teachers,” said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, after declaring the State Teachers’ Awards 2021 ceremony to be held on Sunday.

The education minister credited changes in the selection criteria for the government receiving 1,108 applications for the awards this year, as against 234 received in 2020.

“We introduced relaxations, including reducing the 15-year teaching limit to three years, allowing guest and contractual teachers to apply as per conditions for regular teachers, introducing categories as per student strength so that more teachers could be identified for their work, and a new category of awards called Face of DoE (Directorate of Education) which would be given to two teachers who do notable work in any field. We also removed the restriction which allowed a maximum of four teachers to apply per school,” Sisodia said.

Music teacher Rajkumar from Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Dwarka Sector-19 and Mathematics lecturer Suman Arora from RPVV, A-6 Paschim Vihar will receive the inaugural Face of DoE award this year.

Arora, an IIT-Delhi graduate, was instrumental in helping 23 government school students clear Joint Entrance Examination (Main) last year and also worked in reviewing and updating the support material for Class 12 mathematics this academic year. “She reserves a portion of her salary to help those students preparing for JEE,” Sisodia said during the press conference on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Rajkumar initiated various activities in his school to promote Indian classical music among students. “He participated in Kala Sanskriti Utsav organised by the Hindi Academy Delhi. He was conferred with ‘Pandit Nikhil Banerjee Smriti Sangeet Samman’ for participating and giving outstanding performance in the competition held in 2020,” the education department said in a press note.

The Delhi University alumnus, who pursued his postgraduation and MPhil degree from Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, said he recently played sitar non-stop for 32 hours and 20 minutes, breaking the earlier record of 29 hours and 9 minutes. He is currently awaiting confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records for performing the longest sitar session.

The list of awardees -- a majority are from Delhi government schools -- also includes 14 sports teachers, two librarians, 13 corporation school teachers and 15 private school teachers.

“Proportionate weightage has been given to the initiatives and performance of the applicants as a teacher or principal in the last three years for the award, such as educational and emergency duty provided during Covid and initiatives taken for self-development,” the education department said in a press release.

For the first time, one District Institute For Education and Training (DIET) principal, two senior lecturers and two lecturers will also be awarded under the Teacher-Educators category.

On Saturday, Sisodia also applauded the efforts of Bharti Kalra who arranged for 321 smartphones for children unable to attend online classes due to a lack of devices. Kalra, who is also the vice-principal at Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya, Sector 8 Rohini, Delhi, arranged the help for these students through her family, friends, and acquaintances.

“Many children had lost either one of their parents or their families had lost their source of income during the pandemic. We could not ask these students to buy smartphones and attend classes. So we decided to take matters into our own hands,” said Kalra.

Another recipient Sarita Rani Bhardwaj, who teaches Political Science at a government school in Mangolpuri, was selected for tracking six of her students. “During the pandemic, many students could not be tracked. And due to lockdown, we couldn’t travel to different localities as well. So I paid courier service personnel, milkmen and kirana store workers to track the addresses of my students and get their updated contacts so that I could encourage them to join online classes. I also asked other students to put me in touch with their classmates,” she said.

Sisodia also asked people to call at least one of their teachers on Sunday and thank them for their service.

Director of Education Udit Prakash Rai stated that the process of selecting the recipients was unbiased. “Our teachers served as frontline workers during the Covid-19 period and continued their teaching duties as well. We had an inclusive process and there was no influence. The district-level teams that evaluated the applications had neutral members, including SMC (school management committee) members, previous awardees, and DIET (District Institute For Education and Training) principals as per the DOE marking scheme,” he said.