National award to city teacher who revamped school

R C Parva­thamma (in pic), the headmistress of government lower primary school in Kathan Nagar slum, Jalahalli West, will be receiving the National Award to Teachers 2015 from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

She, along with nine primary schoolteachers, four secondary schoolteachers and one secondary schoolteacher from the special category from Karnataka, will be receiving the award from President Pranab Mukherjee on Teachers’ Day on September 5. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a citation.

When Parvathamma was first assigned to the school 13 years ago, it was operating out of a shed with hardly any students attending. “I was upset at first and tried to get myself transferred out of this school,” she told DH.

She, however, decided to stay on and fight to get a proper building. She raised money through donation to construct a good building with proper toilets. Now, there are five classrooms in the school with good benches, desks and even two computers.

With an MA in History and Kannada, she has been teaching for 22 years now. She served in Doddaballapur and Banaswadi before coming to this school in Jalahalli.

Parvathamma wanted to make the school attractive to children. With the help of donors she got the walls painted with subject-related artwork. Her students are mostly first-generation Kannada learners, their mother tongue being Tamil. In spite of this, her students have won essay competitions at the district level. All the 75 students in her school attend regularly. Parvathamma also ensures that they go on to continue their education after completing class 5 here.