PATNA: A woman teacher from Bihar’s Madhubani district, Chandana Dutt, is one of the 44 selected from across the country for the prestigious National Teacher Award 2021. She has encouraged parents to send their daughters to school since she joined the profession in 2005.
“When I joined as an English language teacher, there was no girl student in the school. I received no response to my query as to why this was the case,” says Dutt. “I began by visiting the locality near the school before and after the school hours. I wanted people to respond to my personal campaign to send their daughters to school,” the 47-year-old said.
Today, nearly 60 per cent of around 850 students from Dutt’s school are girls, mostly from minority communities and poor families. She also started training her students in Madhubani painting. In a significant achievement as a government teacher, she mobilized 400 women in a single day for blood donation during the first phase of Corona-induced lockdown last year. She has also written for children and mentored some physically-challenged students. She was recently awarded for promoting education in Maithali and writing in the language.
Hari Das Sharma from Kaimur-based RK Middle School of Ramgarh is another teacher selected from Bihar for the prestigious award announced annually by the Union Ministry of Education. This year, 44 teachers will be honoured on Teacher’s Day on September 5. President Ram Nath Kovind will honour these teachers.
Other teachers have been selected from states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, Odisha, Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan. As per additional chief secretary of education department Sanjay Kumar, a total of 74 names from Bihar were recommended for this award, before the state education department short-listed six and forwarded them to the Union Ministry of Education.