The Hindu : National : Orissa teachers honoured, violence flayed

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National

Orissa teachers honoured, violence flayed

Staff Reporter

Teachers narrate how they have motivated students to pursue studies in the State

Photo: V. Sudershan

Felicitated: National Teachers Award winners from Orissa at a felicitation function at Karnataka Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Twelve teachers from Orissa who had received the National Awards from President Pratibha Patil on the occasion of Teachers’ Day on Friday were felicitated at a meeting organised at Karnataka Bhawan at the initiative of Commissioner Income Tax (CBDT) Prasanna Dash on Saturday.

The teachers, who were presented with bouquets, narrated how they had motivated students to pursue studies and promoted quality education in the remote corners of the State.

The meeting was presided over by Union Human Resource Development Ministry Joint Secretary Subhas Khuntia and was attended among others by Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise Piyush Patnaik and Secretary (Finance), Government of Tripura, Sanjaya Panda.

Recalling his efforts in promoting education, Vidyadhar Sahu, who teaches at a school in Janla, near Khurda, stressed the importance of a good rapport between teacher and students for spreading quality education. He had the audience completely wowed when he informed that he had been staying in the school all by himself for the past two decades and had been personally looking after the education of the students. He also narrated how he had taken pains to set up a laboratory in a primary school that had inspired students to learn more about science.

Anupama Sinha of Cuttack narrated her socially sensitive approach in motivating parents professing Islamic faith to send their daughters to school. Education, she said, was important for improving the social and educational status of Muslims in the country.

Education was also a tool for keeping and taking children away from vices and this was elaborated by Ashalata Ammanna of Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district who stated how she had transformed her school from being a den of anti-social elements to a model school it now was. For this, she had gone from house to house to awaken the parents and to bring them together for fighting forces who used the school premises for undesirable activities.

While several speakers congratulated the teachers for their hard work and dedication, S.N. Sahu, Director in the Prime Minister’s Office, appealed to the teachers to foster the values of tolerance among students to fight communal forces which inflicted so much violence on people on the basis of religion. He recalled the great contributions of Christians to the development of Orissa and lamented the way they are being targeted in the State by those who spread hatred by invoking religion.

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