A man who has been teaching in madrasas for 38 years is among 374 educationists to be conferred with the National Award for Teachers in Vigyan Bhavan on Teachers Day. Muhammed Ajeesur Rahman Zulfi made learning English,science and maths compulsory for his students to ensure their holistic development. Nothing can replace the role of teacher as a perfect guide in student life, he said. Twenty of the 374 awards are for Sanskrit,Persian and Arabic teachers. In a separate function,52 of the countrys best school teachers were honoured at the 13th National CBSE Teacher Awards on the eve of Teachers Day. Union HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju conferred awards to the teachers,some of who were responsible for successful implementation of CBSEs continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system. Despite being less qualified and paid less than most government school teachers,the CBSE teachers have ensured the highest success rate in different area,Raju said. Union Ministers of State for HRD Jitin Prasada and Shashi Tharoor were present at the award ceremony. Earlier,teachers were the cynosure of society. They were held in high esteem. Today,things have changed with advent of more and more technologies to facilitate dissemination of knowledge. Some of the old teachers like me are striving to adapt to the changing system. But the award encourages and motivates us to do our best in this changing scenario of education, P C Varma,Principal of DAV School in Hamirpur,Himachal Pradesh,said. PC Selva Rani,Principal,SBOA School Anna Nagar,Chennai,was awarded for successfully introducing periodic orientation programmes in Chennai. In teaching one cannot see the fruit of a days work. It is invisible and remains so. We teachers never work just for awards. We are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools sometimes. The miracle is that at times we accomplish this impossible task. So the award obviously boosts us to undertake all the challenges of the education system and encourage us further to deliver quality education in the best possible way, she said. CBSE director Vineet Joshi said: It is for the nurturing and mentoring role of teachers that the society needs to recognise and appreciate them in order to boost their morale and encourage them to continue to deliver quality education. Nothing could be devised so as to become proxy of teacher. CBSE is giving all credit of its success to excellent teachers.
