VIJAYAWADA: Padma Shri awardee, educationist and founder of Vijayawada-based Montessori Educational Institutions V Koteswaramma passed away due to illness in Vijayawada on Sunday. She was 94.
V Koteswaramma, a National level Best Teacher awardee, received the prestigious Padma Shri award in the Education and Literature category in 2017 at the age of 92.
Koteswaramma was born in 1925 to a teacher couple in Gosala near Kankipadu in Krishna district. She was the first woman graduate in Vijayawada taluka way back in 1945 and after completing her degree in Andhra Christian College in Guntur, she opted for B Ed to pursue her passion for teaching.
In the initial days of her career, Koteswaramma worked in the Patamata Zilla Parishad School and in 1955, she started a nursery school with a bunch of 20 kids.
In 1971, she was selected for the Best Teacher national award and the very next year, she was awarded the Best Teacher award at the state-level. In 1973, she set up the Montessori Junior and Degree Colleges and in 1984, the Montessori College of Education came into existence.