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Dubai school principal to be honoured with India’s top teacher award.
The Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee is going to present India’s highest national award for teachers to a Dubai school principal on September 5. Mathew will receive a medal, certificate and a cash prize of ₹50,000 as a part of the award on Teacher’s Day.
The Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee is going to present India’s highest national award for teachers to a Dubai school principal on September 5.
Thomas Mathew, the executive principal at GEMS Our Own English School (Girls), has already been conferred with the National Teacher Award 2015 instituted by the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The nomination for Mathew was filed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which is allowed to nominate 20 out of the 378 awards instituted to publicly recognise outstanding services of outstanding teachers.
Mathew will receive a medal, certificate and a cash prize of ₹50,000 as a part of the award on Teacher’s Day, which is also the birth anniversary of eminent educationist Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India’s first vice-president and second president.
Mathew has had an illustrious career in which he has twice earlier won prestigious awards including the CBSE Teacher Award in 2008 while he held the office of the principal of Our Own High School Sharjah (Boys) and the Asian Education Leadership Award 2015 for outstanding contribution to education.
The only other person from the Gulf region to have been conferred this honour his former colleague in Dubai, Dr Subhash Bhaskaran Nair, who now holds the office of Principal of Shantiniketan Indian School in Doha. Currently, Mathew is into his third year in the office of the executive principal of the flagship school of the GEMS group that has a strength of over 10,000 girls.
“It’s always special when you get the national award. Every time you get an award, you rededicate yourself to work with children. It is a motivating factor and it prompts you to work even harder. I thank God, the entire GEMS family, especially founder Sunny Varkey for the trust he has put in me, and then my wife for supporting and allowing me to work for long hours,” Mathew told Gulf News yesterday.
Talking about the profession of teaching, he said: “We must not choose teaching career by chance … it should be by choice and should not be the last choice. And the most important thing for teachers is to create a bond with children for life and show your genuine passion in teaching and loving them.”
A message he frequently gives to students is to follow their passion and think. He feels learning follows thinking. Children must conceive ideas and then believe in them to finally achieve them. He feel today’s children are already gifted with intelligence and smartness and they need teachers to play the role of a guide.
Hiss 33 years of teaching has taught him that the most naughty students in schools are the ones who show a lot of love and affection later on and students have provide him with the best feedback during informal interactions out of classrooms.
Read the original story by Sajila Saseendran at www.gulfnews.com