50 BMC teachers conferred Mayor's awards on 'Teachers Day'

Mumbai, Sep 5 (UNI) On the occasion of 'Teachers Day', 50 teachers of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run schools were presented with the Mayor's awards for their contribution to the field of teaching.

The awardees were given Rs 5,000 cash along with a gold medal bearing the BMC's emblem and a certificate by Mayor Shubha Raul.

During the award function, Mrs Raul said, ''The tradition of felicitating teachers on 'Teachers Day', the birth anniversary of S Radhakrishnan, the former President of India, is a very good thing as it encourages teachers to do well and improvise.'' The award function was attended by Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak, Additional Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gajbeye, Standing Committee chairman Ravindra Waikar, Deputy Mayor Vidya Thakur and Education Committee chairman Mangesh Satamkar.

The awardees were from all the eight mediums like English, Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and others taught in BMC and private schools.

The awardees, belonging to various schools within the city limits, were selected by a committee of five people, who select teachers who have been teaching for at least 10 years in their respective schools.

The awards were instituted in 1971. Aided schools were brought under its ambit since 1987-88, while recognised unaided schools were included for the awards since 1990-91.

Mr Satamkar said there are many complaints from teachers for not being included in the awardees list since education officer from each area receives around 200-250 applications from teachers and can select only three teachers from these applications.

The BMC was not keen to increase the number of awardees from 50, as the importance would be lost, he added.

UNI