Identifying poverty, lack of access to schools, and high drop out rates as major roadblocks to universalisation of elementary education, President Pratibha Patil said on Wednesday that innovative techniques of teaching should be adopted to retain children in schools. 

Giving away the National Awards to 366 teachers including 12 from Karnataka, she also expressed her concerns for child labourers and urged teachers to develop a curriculum that could be geared to the needs of such children. 

“I feel deeply for the unfortunate children, who are working in fields, factories, shops and  streets, for a livelihood,” she said.

“There is a need to analyse the reasons behind child labour and to solve them. One of the reasons could be that school education is not relevant to the needs of these children,” she said.   Patil also suggested that children should be prepared to fight social evils like child marriage, gender inequality, addiction and other social stigmas. 

Awardees from State
The awardees from Karnataka in the primary school teachers category are H S  Parameshaiah from Bangalore (South), Narayanappa from Kolar, Shanmukappa S, Shimoga, Nagalambika Dundappa Melavanki, Belgaum, Pushpa Vinayak Naik, Uttar Kannada,  M Husenamma, Bellary, George Castelino, Udupi, Parappa Irappa Muchakhandi, Bagalkot and C Shadakshari, Chikmagalur. 

In the secondary school teachers category the awardees from Karnataka are Devendrappa Shivappa Totanahalli,  Gulbarga, Sadashivayya Irayya Sambal, Belgaum,  K R  Gangadhar, Dakshina Kannada and V P Darukaradhya, Bangalore.