New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) Like last year, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will confer the National Teachers' Award this year also on the occasion of Teachers' Day on September 5, the Ministry of Human Resource Development said on Monday.
Instituted in 1958 to commemorate the second President of India S. Radhakrishnan, a renowned educationist, the award was earlier conferred by the President of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also interact with the recipients of the award at his residence on Tuesday.
Teachers from state or central government schools and those affiliated with CBSE or CISCE are eligible for the award.
The government has made a few changes in the eligibility criteria and other rules for the awards from this year, for instance, making it online and allowing teachers to self-nominate and directly apply for the award.
The government also lifted the minimum eligibility criterion this year, making the competition open for younger teachers, unlike before when one was required to have completed 15 years in service to be considered eligible.
The government has also reduced the number of the awards to 45 from over 300, in order to "restore the prestige of the award".
The Ministry in a statement said that 6,692 teachers have applied for the award, of whom 152 were nominated for the award by states, Union Territories and other organisations.
"These nominated teachers gave a presentation before an independent jury comprising a senior educationist, during third week of August," it said.
