Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Presents National Award for Innovation

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, conferred the National Award for Innovations and Good Practices in Educational Administration (2020-21 & 2021-22) on 65 outstanding district and block education officers from across the country, today, at a function held in New Delhi. Chancellor, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Shri Mahesh Chandra Pant; Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Shri Sanjay Kumar; Vice Chancellor, NIEPA, Prof. Shashikala Wanjari; and other officials of the Ministry of Education and dignitaries were also present at the event. Director (Planning and Development) and Head, Department of Educational Administration at NIEPA, Prof. Kumar Suresh presented a brief description of the programme.

While addressing the programme, Shri Pradhan congratulated all the recipients of the awards. The Minister commended their passion towards enriching lives of students and innovative efforts towards making learning in schools more vibrant. He congratulated NIEPA for creating a platform for sharing and recognizing innovative educational initiatives and best practices from across the country. He expressed his confidence that NIEPA will also make efforts to accelerate the implementation of NEP in letter and spirit at the grassroots-level as well as to build capacities of school administrators.

In line with the essence of NEP 2020, Shri Pradhan encouraged all to work together with a sense of mission and purpose for transforming our Amrit Peedhi into global citizens as well as for realizing the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Highlighting the vastness of the Indian education system which has 10 million teachers and 260 million students, Shri Pradhan emphasised the need for leadership, innovation, introduction of good practices, etc. in the system. He highlighted the important roles that education administrators play as they have the responsibility of handling human resources and must impose some code of conduct on themselves for the successful implementation of their innovative practices.

NIEPA has instituted the National Award for Innovations & Good Practices in Educational Administration for district- and block-level education officers. The scheme was launched in 2014 to encourage innovations and good practices in educational administration at the grass-root level for improving the functioning of the public system of education. The overall aim is to create a culture and ecosystem of innovations and good practices in educational administration at the field level of educational administration.

Objectives of the awards also include documenting and disseminating innovations and good practices in educational administration at district and block levels. Selected officers are presented award/ certificate of appreciation in the national award presentation function conceding with a two-day national conference on innovations and good practices in educational administration, organised by NIEPA in New Delhi. The candidates are invited to participate and present their innovations at the conference.