Date:18/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/18/stories/2006081825320400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Unsung Heroes' of the city spotted

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: For Radha Krishnamurthy, a Kendriya Vidyalaya student, Shakuntala Bhandarkar of Army Public School and Rebecca Shelli Kumar of the Baldwin Girls High School, Thursday would always be special. They had reason to believe so because they won the regional round of the national-level competition "Unsung Heroes... No Longer" conducted here by the Rustom Irani Foundation.

The competition was aimed at recognising the skills of primary and secondary school teachers from the city. The regional-level competition included rounds such as quiz, sloganeering, comprehension, turncoat and teacher-student round. The participants from 19 educational institutions were given a situation and asked to create a caption in sloganeering round.

The "turncoat" round had the same teacher debating in favour of and against a specific issue. This round had been designed to assess the balanced perspective of teachers. Teacher-student round made the teachers interact with their students to explain a situation.

Suzanne Percy of the Rustom Irani Foundation said: "We are conducting this event for the fourth year now to recognise and reward the best teaching minds across the country.

"The winners of the regional level events will compete in the grand finale in Mumbai." The final event will be held in Mumbai on September 1.

In the final competition, five teachers will be awarded with a trophy called "Light of liberty", including a rural teacher and a teacher for differently-abled children.