Hyderabad, August 16: The Best Teacher Awards being presented by the state government on September 5 every year, on the occasion of Teachers Day, have been losing their significance with each passing year. Teachers are felicitated with a medal, certificate and a cash prize of Rs.3,000. Teachers consider the award an honour and recognition by the state government of their valuable service of over 20 years.
There has been a sharp decline in the number of applicants for the awards as the teachers say that submitting applications for the awards is a “cumbersome process”.
While there are 80 awards in 13 categories, only 60 teachers have submitted applications to the government this year. This is shocking given that there are about 3 lakh teachers in the state working in government schools.
Several eligible and senior teachers are shying away from submitting applications due to the procedural hurdles. The allegations that only those teachers with political connections or those who can lobby hard with the officials can secure awards has been discouraging several senior teachers from submitting applications for the awards.
There are complaints that the teachers need to spend about Rs.50,000 to submit all the relevant documents in support of their claims and to bribe officials from the mandal to the state level to get their applications approved.
Though teachers’ unions have been demanding for the last several years that the government identify and select the best teacher on its own, instead of asking the teachers to apply for the awards, the government ignored the demands and decided to go ahead with the earlier selection procedure.
“It is not proper to ask senior teachers who served in various positions for about 20 years to apply for best teacher awards. Instead, the government should form a selection committee at district-level with the collector as the chairman to identify senior teachers who rendered valuable services. Many senior teachers feel it as an insult to apply themselves for awards,” said former teacher and MLC, Mr Sudhakar Reddy.
As per existing norms, aspiring teachers have to submit relevant certificates pertaining to their experience, innovative teaching methods, their role in the development of children at school, results achieved in exams, their role in student-parent committees