New Delhi : Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, today announced the winners of the Pearson Teaching Awards 2013 (PTA) at a grand ceremony in New Delhi. PTA is an initiative to honour the outstanding teachers who are making a real difference to the education system in India.

Following a rigorous process of screening and assessment of the nominations and an extensive pre jury short listing process, the grand jury selected 18 educators as the winners for 20 awards across School, Higher Education and common categories. (Please refer to Annexure I for detailed list of winners & categories)

Several well-known public figures attended the event to show their support towards the cause. Shri. Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Minister of Law and Justice of India was the Chief Guest at the award ceremony. Ms. Shabana Azmi, Noted actress & social activist and Mr. Gautam Gambhir, leading Indian cricketer, graced the ceremony as guests of honour. Pearson Teaching Awards also received encouragement from several renowned teaching professionals, academicians and knowledge leaders who joined the celebration of teaching profession.

The grand ceremony convened the senior most officials from Pearson India namely – Mr. Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India, Mr. Ranu Kawatra, President and CEO, Pearson Education India and Mr. Srikanth B. Iyer, CEO, Pearson Education Services & Tutor Vista. Mr. Pratik Mehta, Education Lead, Microsoft India also graced the occasion with his presence. Microsoft India is the Technology Partner for the awards.

In recognition of the outstanding contribution made by the winners of the Pearson Teaching Awards 2013, these teachers have an automatic entry as finalists for the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum (PILGF). Microsoft PILGF is an annual global event that recognizes and rewards innovative teachers who practice the elements of 21st century learning in their own classrooms.

Announcing the winners of ‘Pearson Teaching Awards 2013’, Mr. Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India said, ” At Pearson India, it is an honour for us to meet and award some of the leading educators of the country, who are doing the noblest job of laying the strong foundation for the country’s next generation. Awards conferred upon them today are a small token of recognition for the grand responsibility they carry on their shoulders.”

“It’s the second edition of Pearson Teaching Awards and the response is overwhelming. It is encouraging to see the platform grow popular amongst the teachers. This is just the beginning and we hope to increase participation levels every year and eventually make it the single biggest platform in the country to connect the students, parents & teachers and celebrate this noble profession.” Mr. Mehrotra added.

PTA 2013 received over 5500 nominations from all over the country, with the highest number of entries coming in from Karnataka (346), Maharashtra (313), Punjab (293), Uttar Pradesh (288), Tamil Nadu (246) and Delhi (213). All the nominations underwent a pre-jury and grand-jury screening process. The prestigious jury panel comprised of prominent personalities from Indian education & arts streams – Professor Y.S. Rajan, well known scientist and bureaucrat; Dr. Amir Ullah Khan, development economist and academician;            Dr. Pushpesh Pant, noted academic and historian; Prof J S Rajput, Former Director, NCERT and Former Chairman, NCTE, Dr. G James Pitchai, renowned scientist and Vice Chancellor, Bharathiar University; Ms. Lata Vaidyanathan, Principal, Modern School and Ms. Sanjna Kapoor, Co-founder, Junoon Theatre.

As a precursor to the Pearson Teaching Awards, Pearson India conducted a nationwide ‘Voice of Teacher Survey’ to understand the teachers’ perspective on the changing dynamics of student-teacher relationship and the key challenges of teaching profession. As per the survey findings 76% teachers expressed that they consider ‘gratitude from students’ as the best form of recognition, even more than financial incentives (60%) or recognition from their management (62%). 3,262 teachers from schools and higher education institutes in 223 tier I, II and III cities across the 25 Indian states participated in the ‘Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey’.

This was followed by the launch of ‘Thank Your Teacher’ nationwide initiative that urged students & others to come forward and thank their teachers for making a difference to their lives. The initiative received overwhelming response with more than 32,000 ‘Thank you’ messages from students.

Pearson introduced Pearson Teaching Awards in 2012, as a nationwide initiative for celebrating teaching excellence and recognizing extraordinary performers of the teaching profession.

Source : Lokesh Shastri