Teacher’s Day: Punjab govt honours 64 teachers, 10 officials from education dept

This year, the Punjab education department introduced one more new category: Young Teacher Award. Under this category, which was introduced to appreciate and motivate young teachers helping in the transformation of government schools, educationists with a minimum service period of three years but less than 10 years, were eligible to apply. Till last year, teachers only with the service period of at least 10 years were eligible to apply for state awards.

Under the ‘Administration Award’ category, officials such as district education officers (DEOs), deputy DEOs, block primary education officers and DIET principals were eligible.

While 54 teachers this year were given the state award, 10 each were honored under Young Teacher Award and Administration Award categories.

During the function, Singla also paid tributes to the former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on this day in 1888.

Singla said that teachers are the biggest contributors in the development of any country. He added that government school teachers have been working tirelessly to improve the standard of education. He said that due to the hard work and dedication of teachers, Punjab has registered around 15 per cent growth in enrolment, which is the highest ever. He said that around 45 per cent government schools have been developed as smart schools.

Singla said that to utilize the energy of young educationists, the government has also introduced new schemes in the field of education. He said that the government has started recruiting principals and other administrative posts through direct recruitment which has helped to engage more youths to transform government schools.