She started teaching with Rs 60 a day, two decades later, a national honour

In 2004, Suman Goel returned to her old school, GSKV Pooth Kalan in Delhi's Rohini, as a primary teacher. She had been a student there decades earlier, earning just Rs 60 a day – money that helped finance her college education. Now 41, Goel has been chosen for the National Teachers Award 2026. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to supporting first-generation learners from her neighborhood, where many parents are contractual laborers, tailors, or daily-wage workers.

Beyond academics, Goel ensures her students' well-being by providing sweaters, stationery, and tooth-brushing activities, and tracks their food intake under the PM Poshan initiative. Encouraging her students to write books, she helped ten-12 of them publish their works. Her own path was not predestined; after her family moved to Delhi, she pursued a BA at Lakshmibai College while teaching at her alma mater.

The National Teachers Award is not just a personal achievement for Goel, but a recognition of the unseen work done by primary teachers who nurture children and understand their circumstances.