September 11, Bengaluru: “Education is my strength and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the help of my mentors and the work that teachers do, it’s important to celebrate them” said Dr. Malvika Iyer, a bomb blast survivor and national award winner.
Dr. Iyer was speaking at the Star Educator Awards gala – a virtual awards function, to felicitate the winners of this year’s Star Educator Awards, an annual educator awards organized by Learning Matters Private Limited, an ed-tech organisation based in Bengaluru.
Recognizing the challenges faced by educators worldwide in the last two years, Dr. Iyer further spoke about her mantra for overcoming adversities and shared her journey from being a bomb blast survivor to an international motivational speaker and global icon for disability and gender rights. She credited her success to education and to her teachers who recognised her abilities.
This year, Learning Matters honoured 9 outstanding educators and one institution that have gone above and beyond for students. The global event felicitated educators across the globe like Ms. Maitri Sivaraman, who began teaching international school children and now trains teachers in rural Gambia, West Africa and the educators of Ummeed Community Center, Pune which provides free after-school holistic support to students.
Dr. Pradeep Agashe, a veteran educator with 40+ years of teaching and training experience, who was felicitated for ‘Excellence in Teaching Mathematics’ said, “There is a lot of fear among children about math which is created by the way adults talk about math. If we consciously change the way we talk about math and make it fun, we can encourage children to pursue the subject with interest.”
Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, co-founder of Learning Matters, talked about the organisation’s mission and said ”In order to make large-scale and sustainable impact on students, we MUST work with teachers – to train, support and enable them with the right tools.”
