National Teachers Awards winners meet PM: Modi urges teachers to speak to parents, regulate children’s screen time

Referring to the National Education Policy, Modi stressed the importance of taking children outside the classroom and connecting them with real-world skills and forms of work.

He also asked the teachers to go beyond imparting knowledge about the syllabus and help inculcate values such as dignity of labour among children.

The PM emphasised that teachers need to look beyond children’s academic performance and pay attention to their behaviour and everyday lives. Highlighting fewer joint family set-ups in urban centres, he said teachers have an increasingly important role to play in the lives of children.

According to the official statement, the PM also talked about drug addiction and called upon teachers to remain alert to changes in children, identify the cause and help them overcome the habit.

“The Prime Minister said preserving the innocence of childhood is an important role that a teacher can play…children have the same basic nature and curiosity and if teachers nurture and appropriately channelise this curiosity, they can make a significant contribution to their development,” stated the government release.

This year, 82 teachers and educators were selected for the National Teachers Awards. Of them, 48 teachers are from the Department of School Education and Literacy, 21 teachers/faculty members from higher educational institutions and polytechnics, and 13 are skill trainers from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

The awardees also spoke about the experiences and innovations that have shaped their teaching journey and shared several creative approaches adopted by them to make classroom learning more engaging and effective, the statement said.