As many as 97 national awardee teachers for 2020 and 2021, including four from Jharkhand, have requested President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to honour them in a physical ceremony on September 5.

All these teachers had received their awards in a virtual event owing to Covid-19 restrictions. Of them, 47 teachers received the award in 2020 and the rest in 2021

“As many as 97 national awardee teachers for 2020 and 2021 have written to the President and the Prime Minister requesting to honour us at a ceremony on Teachers’ Day on September 5 as we missed the opportunity of receiving the award in person due to the pandemic. These teachers had received the award in a virtual event organised at their respective district collectorate offices or at director education offices in state headquarters,” said Smith Kumar Soni, an acting headmaster at Government Middle School in Bano block of Jharkhand’s Simdega district, who got the award in a virtual ceremony in 2020.

“All of us have individually e-mailed to the President of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union education minister requesting an opportunity to meet them. In addition, a consolidated request letter too has been submitted to the office of the President of India and the Prime Minister’s Office earlier this month,” Soni said.

He said a consolidated letter to the President and the Prime Minister was also sent on Friday morning.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for teachers to receive the award from the President every year. They also get an opportunity to interact with the Prime Minister on the occasion. The family members of the awardees are allowed to witness the ceremony. All these moments are the most memorable events in the life of a teacher, which we missed,” Soni said.

Apart from Soni, two more teachers from Jharkhand received the award virtually in 2020. They were Ishita Dey, vice-principal of Jamshedpur-based Tarapore School in Agrico, and Nirupama Kumari, a teacher at Ram Rudra plus two High School in Chas, Bokaro.

In 2021, Manoj Kumar Singh, a mathematics and science teacher at Hindustan Mitra Mandal Middle School in Jamshedpur’s Golmuri was selected for the award.

In 2022, 46 teachers have been selected for the award function, which will be held on September 5 in Delhi.

From eastern states, Shipra Mishra, a science teacher at Tata Workers Union High School in Jamshedpur; Ishwar Chandra Nayak from Government Upper Primary School in Odisha’s Puri; Buddhadev Dutta from Joypur Primary School in Bengal’s Bankura; Saurabh Suman from Lalit Narayan Laxmi Narayan Project Girls High School in Bihar’s Supaul and Nishi Kumari from Mahadev Higher Secondary School in Patna have been selected for the award.