Vice president honours 219 teachers with national award

In a break from tradition, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, instead of the president, today gave away the national awards for teachers.

President Ram Nath Kovind later interacted with the 219 awardees at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

Constituted in 1958, the National Award for Teachers is presented by the president to teachers, who have rendered exemplary service to the nation by exhibiting meritorious performance. The awards cover teachers working in primary, middle and secondary schools in the country.

Congratulating the teachers on the occasion, Naidu called them the "unsung heroes".
"Teachers are 'bharata bhagya vidhatas' (shapers of India's development), dedicating their time and energy to shape individuals for creating New India. They have a formidable responsibility to achieve 100 per cent literacy in next five years," he said at the award ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan here.

"India was once known as 'Vishwa Guru' with people from across the globe flocking to our ancient seats of learning like Nalanda and Takshashila. Today all teachers must pledge to transform classrooms into hubs of joyful learning and raise the education system to a much higher level," he said.

A total of 219 teachers, including 124 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teachers, were awarded today.

The recognition is extended to teachers of CBSE- affiliated schools, independent affiliated schools situated abroad, ICSCE, Sainik School, KVs, NVs, CTSA and schools run by the Atomic Energy Education Society.

The award ceremony was also presided over by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and the newly inducted Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh.

On the occasion, the vice president also launched DIKSHA, a national digital infrastructure for teachers.

"DIKSHA is a customisable national digital infrastructure that states, Teacher Education Institutions (TEI) and private entities can use for their respective teacher-centric initiatives.

"Teachers will be able to use DIKSHA to access and create high quality teaching, learning and assessment resources for all subjects and levels in al Indian languages. They will be able to use DIKSHA to access and create high quality teaching," Javadekar said.