Rotary Shiksha Samman 2000 initiative by Rotary Club of Hailakandi

Sept. 5: Even after more than seven decades of independence, India’s literacy rate stands at 74.04 percent.  To increase the literacy graph, Rotary India decided to join hands with the Government. It was with the objective of eradicating illiteracy from the country that the Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) was formed in 2014 at the initiative of Rotary International past president Kalyan Banerjee.

TEACH program under this mission covers Teacher support (T ) giving training and recognition of distinguished teacher selected by their own students with Nation Builders Award (NBA); E learning (E) covers teaching students with the help of audio visual aid making learning interesting, thereby increasing attendance and minimising drop outs; Adult Literacy (A) covering educating illiterate adults by Rotarians on their own efforts or with the help of NGOs; Child Development (C) covering street children, school dropouts, children not going to school at all to be groomed up for enrolling in formal school by the selected NGOs financed by Rotarians under Asha Kiran program and Happy School (H) covering improving the condition of Government primary schools to make them attractive to little students with all the facilities, thereby increasing attendance and reducing absenteeism.

Rotary e-learning module has been accepted by the India Government through NCERT for its schools which is soon to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India to make this available for all through DD channel. So far, country wide 70,941 teachers were trained. e-Learning facilities were given to 15,658 schools, 87,870 Illiterate adults made literate, 37,436 children sent to schools under Asha Kiran program and 2,758 Government Schools converted to Happy Schools with all bare minimum facilities.

This year in view of restrictions due to pandemic, Nation Builder Award could not be given. Hence, Rotary International District 3240 under the leadership of District Governor Subhasish Chatterjee has announced the “Shiksha Samman 2020” & requested each Club to recognize one or more distinguished teacher(s) from their respective localities & felicitate them during this September.

Rotary Club of Hailakandi recognised & felicitated 8 teachers on 5th September from different educational institutions of Hailakandi District with prestigious “SHIKSHA SAMMAN 2020” awards.This initiative was spearheaded by club president Shankar Choudhury, club secretary Tridivesh Chakravorty, literacy chairman Debasish Guhothakurta, Reeta Chanda, Bibhabhusan Chakraborty, Lutfur Rahaman Barbhuiya, Bijoyini Bhattacharjee, Indranil Chakravorty, Ajay Das and other members.