RANCHI: School education and literacy department felicitated 12 teachers and three schools at the maiden 'State Award for Teachers' in Jharkhand on Wednesday.At the state level, Kaushal Kumar Singh from Govindpur (Dhanbad), Jaideo Mahato from Chakradharpur and Smith Kumar Soni from Bano (Simdega) received the awards. Nine more teachers at the district level, including Manoj Kumar Singh from East Singbhum, Surendra Prasad Gupta from Ramgarh, Jayprakash Rajak from Chatra, Bipin Bihari Jha from Gumla, Chintamani Prasad and Farooque Ahmed from Hazaribag, Abha Lakra from Khunti, Avnindra Singh from Ranchi and Tarun Kumar Singh from Seraikela-Kharsawan, were awarded.Three schools were also recognised for 100% of its students scoring first division marks in the board examinations conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council this year. They are Model School Khunti, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Keredari (Hazaribag) and Model School Pakur.Congratulating the awardees, state education minister Neera Yadav said, "The ceremony was organised to recognise the role of teachers in the transformation journey of the education sector in the state. Today, we are stressing the need for value-based education for children in addition to good academic results. These teachers have a huge role to play in the process."Some of the teachers present at the event also shared their stories of change. Talking to TOI, state award winner Smith Kumar Soni from Simdega shared how his 'mentorship' programme helped bring back drop-out students to school. "I introduced a mentorship scheme in the school, where each student mentors three dropout students and encourages them to attend classes. This has helped in improving the attendance tremendously," he said.Secretary (school education and literacy department) A P Singh said, "It is a proud moment for us as teachers from rural areas come forward with new teaching ideas and practices that are being appreciated across the nation. This year's national award recipient Arvind Raj Jajware has been in the teaching profession for less than 10 years but his dedication and performance has brought laurels to the state. To appreciate more teachers like him, we started the concept of state awards this year.""A total of 20 schools from rural pockets have performed exceedingly well in the intermediate and matriculation board examinations this year with 100% results. Bigger schools in cities must take a lesson from the teachers there," he added.

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