National Award for Teachers: Goa’s Sindhu Prabhudesai Nayak among national winners

Sindhu Prabhudesai Nayak, the headmistress of Government High School Molcornem, Quepem in South Goa on Saturday received the prestigious National Award for Teachers for the year 2020 making her one among 47 teachers from across the country to receive the award from the hands of the president on the occasion of the 59th Teachers’ Day celebration.

Sindhu Prabhudesai Nayak, the headmistress of Government High School Molcornem, Quepem in South Goa on Saturday received the prestigious National Award for Teachers for the year 2020 making her one among 47 teachers from across the country to receive the award from the hands of the president on the occasion of the 59th Teachers’ Day celebration.

Sindhu Prabhudesai Nayak

“I am elated to receive the National Award. It is an overwhelming experience for me. I am glad that my dedicated efforts as a team leader have won nationwide acclaim,” she said on receiving the award.

“I dedicate this award to the people of Molcornem village which includes parents, students, school management committee members and the entire squad of Government High School Molcornem for their cooperation and collective efforts in making the planned strategies successful in uplifting the school,” she added.

She was awarded for having successfully created a conducive and pleasant learning environment for her students and having introduced joyful and creative learning methods, skill based projects and use of ICT for greater learner engagement and better learning outcomes.

During the current pandemic, she has reached out to her students through homeschooling making links to their context in terms of content and language.

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education organised this national level function on Teachers Day to confer the National Award to the Best Teacher of the country. The president of India, Ramnath Kovind addressed the function through video conferencing.

As headmistress she is credited with having transformed the school remarkably. “The confidence level of the students of this remote area has been enhanced tremendously. Students have excelled in academics, sports and co-curricular activities. Most of the students who are first generation learners, have won State level and national level prizes in the recent years,” the state government said in her nomination.

“She has improved the infrastructure of the school, set up a digital library, herbal garden, kitchen garden and customised compost unit in the school. Graffiti has been introduced in the school to create “learning walls”, Special emphasis is given on menstrual hygiene, personal hygiene and sanitation of the students,” the note added.

In less than five years as the headmistress of the school, she has won two National Awards for the school, conferred by the Government of India.

She is also a recipient of National Award conferred by “Shikshak Vikas Parishad”.

Her research paper on “Role of leader in transforming the school” was selected to be presented for the National Conference organised by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), New Delhi in 2020.