In the academic year of 2018 – 2019, Sri Aurobindo Society along with Samagra Shiksha – Tamil Nadu had conducted transformative program “RUPANTAR”, in State Government School connecting with 1, 50,000 teachers to the pioneering concept of Zero-investment Innovation for Education Initiatives (ZIIEI). Through this program, teachers were invited to submit innovative practices that they are implementing in their schools to improve the quality of education. One of the important qualifying criteria for these practices is that they need to be at zero or negligible cost.
Rupantar received 90,000 impactful ideas from the Tamil Nadu government school teachers which they have been practicing in their respective schools to better the education status. Amongst these, 23 ideas were selected to be published in the Tamil Nadu ZIIEI Innovation Handbook and the respective teachers along with 500 others were selected for the Innovative Teachers Award 2019-20.
A state level felicitation program was organized to honor the recipients on 10 July, 2019 at MCC Hr. Sec. School, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Principal Secretary of School Education, Mr. Pradeep Yadav, was invited to conduct the event.
The Honorable Education Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. K. A. Sengottaiyan, graced the occasion as a Guest of Honor and felicitated the 523 teachers along with 32 district education officers presenting them with the Innovative Teachers Award 2019-20. The Tamil Nadu ZIIEI Innovation Handbook, a compilation of the selected zero-investment best practices collected from the government school teachers of Tamil Nadu, was officially launched by the Honorable Minster at the event.
The event began with the Welcome Address presented by the State Project Director, Mr. Sudalaikannan followed by the Key Note address by the Honorable Minister, Mr. Sengottaiyan. Shri Vijaybhai, Member Executive, Sri Aurobindo Society and Mr. Ramdoss Bharathan, Senior Vice President, HDFC Bank, Chennai addressed the gathering. Mr. Pradeep Yadav delivered a special remark on the occasion. Dr. Kannappan, Directorate of School Education, Tamil Nadu, proposed the Vote of Thanks.
