{
  "id": 2712400,
  "title": "She started teaching with Rs 60 a day, two decades later, a national honour",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/23/she-started-teaching-with-rs-60-a-day-two-decades-later-a-national",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-23T04:08:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/she-started-teaching-with-rs-60-a-day-two-decades-later-a-national-honour-10845547/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Suman Goel started teaching at Rs 60 a day in 2004.",
    "She returned to her Delhi school GSKV Pooth Kalan as a teacher.",
    "Goel awarded National Teachers Award 2026 for supporting students."
  ],
  "editors_take": "This national honour for Suman Goel underscores the value of her two-decade commitment to supporting first-generation learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, recognising the critical role primary teachers play in shaping young lives.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}