From asteroid hunter to Maths wizard, 82 educators to receive National Teachers’ Awards
Teachers who engage in creative pedagogy and community leadership are in focus; among awardees are faculty in Indian Knowledge Systems, including Vaastu Shastra, the Bhagavad Gita, and integrating Sanskrit with AI
82 educators across India will receive National Teachers' Awards on September 5, honoring their diverse contributions to education. President Droupadi Murmu will present the awards. Among the recipients are 48 school teachers, 21 higher education faculty members, and 13 trainers from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
One of the awardees, Anil Kaushik, a Haryana-based maths educator, created an advanced physical Maths lab with 40 original learning models and a virtual lab with 30 "Harbans puzzles." He authored textbooks on Vedic Mathematics and developed teaching modules on the DIKSHA portal. Another recipient, Divyendu Sen from Rajasthan, mentors students in asteroid hunting and developed cost-effective educational tools like AI-enabled biology education and a virtual biology lab.
Rajasthan's Vartika Gulati engages students with everyday objects, teaching algebra using groundnuts and geometry using kites. Her "Prashno Se Vigyan" (Science through questions) initiative encourages student-led inquiry. Odisha's Padaraj Nayak, from a coal mining community, guided students in building over 50 prototypes, including a low-cost automatic plate-washing machine patented by the Government of India.
Jharkhand's Munmun Bhattacherjee transformed a vulnerable coal mining community by introducing low-cost Foundational Literacy and Numeracy tools, integrating children with special needs, and preventing dropouts through home visits. Maharashtra's Kavita Gitte, head teacher for nearly 30 years, integrated migrant sugarcane workers' children into mainstream schooling and guided 210 students to state and national achievements in sports.
Gujarat's Nitinkumar converted a resource-limited tribal school into a digital learning hub, establishing a 45-computer IT lab, a 7D VR/AR lab, and a student journalism studio called "R NEWS." Goa's Mahadev Shinde, a pioneer in adaptive sports, coached India's floor hockey team to victory at the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games and mentored 14 international athletes to medals for India.
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