Overachieving teachers inspire audience with their work by transforming lives of students, communities

NEW DELHI: Inspiring narratives of teachers going beyond the call of duty to better the lives of their students and society at large emerged on Friday when 81 educators were conferred the National Teacher Awards 2025. There was stunned silence and awe among the audience when short video clips of each awardee were beamed on a giant screen to showcase their achievements. The TNIE caught up with a few of them who are playing a larger than life role in the lives of their students. Teachers from the primary, secondary, colleges and universities, apart from those in the skill development field were awarded on Friday. We are grateful to be recognised like this. The selection process by the government was transparent and the system of self-nomination for the award is a great move, many said. Nang Ekthani Mounglang, Headmaster at the Government Secondary School at Pachin in Arunachal Pradesh joined her school in November 2023. A fire accident had ravaged the school and destroyed all the infrastructure. I was literally told that I had to start from scratch, she recalled. The CBSE school had recorded a maximum pass percentage of 27% until then. In March 2025, the school recorded a 100% pass percentage with all its 92 students clearing the exam. The school was the only one in the Itanagar Circle to get cent percent. We repeatedly held mock exams for all the students. I used to hold training classes to train the teachers. I am an English teacher but whenever any other teacher was not able to make it to class, I would prepare the subject and teach the students, she recalls. Shaikh Mohammad Waquioddin, a teacher at Zilla Parishad High School at Ardhapur in Maharashtras Nanded district is a local celebrity. The Science teacher with 28 years of teaching experience assessed that girl students of the muslim community in his district did not attend school after completion of Class VII due to safety reasons. The high school was 3.5 km from their homes and in an isolated spot. We took a decision in 2015 to create temporary schools in the area by renting rooms so that their education continued without a break. A few of them have today pursued professional degrees and other courses, he says with pride. On hearing that 245 women in the area developed Uterine Cancer due to infection, Waquioddin and other teachers pooled in and decided to supply sanitary pads to the girl students in their school for their use and to be taken home so that other women in the family too use them. I also bought a sanitary pad machine to help the girls in my school from the Rs One lakh I got for my State Teacher award in 2017-2018. It is still functioning, he adds. Kishorkumar MS, a class IV teacher at the Government Corporation Higher Secondary School at Kallara in Trivandrum developed 40 teaching aids from 2019-2024 with the help of students to make them understand their subjects better apart from creating much e-content. I wanted students to develop their personality. During the one-hour lunch break, I would goad them to go on stage and take the mike and speak on some small topic. I wanted them to shed their inhibitions and become bold, he adds. Principal Karma Tempo Ethenpa of PM Shri Mangan Senior Secondary School in Mangan (earlier North Sikkim), a former athlete and footballer, taught students to embrace studies by using sports and music.My students began excelling in studies. Many of them have even gone on to play at the National level too, he said. It is very cold in our place. Instead of going home quickly, students started playing and exercising and becoming physically and mentally fit, he explained. Srivardhini K Jha, professor at the Entrepreneurship at IIM Bengaluru and Chairperson at IIM start-up Incubation Cell has played a pivotal role in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among MBA students. Unlike other subjects, entrepreneurship cannot be taught using books, she said, adding she designed teaching material on her own. The Incubation Cell welcomes people from all over who have an idea and want mentoring and support of a network. Women entrepreneurs are a key focus area, she said. Professor Vineeth N Balasubramanian, who teaches Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence at IIT, Hyderabad, is a Ph.D holder from Arizona State University. He has designed an online course in AI which over 40,000-plus people have taken up. He has played a crucial role in providing quality content for National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.