SHIVAMOGGA: A Government Higher Primary School (GHPS) teacher of a remote village in the foothills of the Western Ghats has been chosen for the National Best Teacher Award for her excellence in keeping ‘environment’ as a tool to impart education.
Ratnakumari S, who hails from Samatagaru village of Hosanagara taluk, has been chosen for the award by the Central Department of Education and Literacy. She is one of the 48 teachers chosen for the honour from across the country.
Ratnakumari told TNSE, “This award is an honour given to my remotest village where about 56 children are studying, and about one-fourth of them are from Samatagaru. With the persistent support of parents, teachers, SDMC members, and the alumni, the school has been recognised at the national level. It is the teamwork that transformed the school and the children,” she proudly said.
Ratnakumari, after completing her B Com, joined the Teacher Certificate Higher (TCH) course, which was her dream since childhood. She has been serving as a teacher at this GHPS for the past 24 years.
She has inculcated child-centric education, making nature a tool to impart their studies. Motivated by the books of Poornachandra Tejaswi, Ratnakumari makes it a point that every student in the school reads books in the afternoon. The library is also managed by students.