Roohi Sultana will be awarded Prestigious National Teacher Award by President Ram Nath Kovind

Roohi Sultana, a teacher at the BMS Kashipora, Srinagar, is one of the 47 teachers in India who have been selected for the prestigious National Teachers Award 2020, which will be given out by the President Ram Nath Kovind in a virtual ceremony on September 5.

Sultana follows a “low cost-no cost” method of teaching her students. Most of her students come from low-income families of Bakarwal and Gujjar communities in Jammu and Kashmir. Buying notebooks and registers is an expensive affair for these students, so Sultana discovered innovative teaching methods.

She collects waste materials, plastic covers, sawdust, and even used tea leaves from the shops in Srinagar, then she uses them in creative ways to make learning fun for her students.

In a statement, Sultana said, “Used plastic covers of wheat flour can be used to write for practice. I write nouns and word-meaning on used bottles. I write words on toffee rappers and ask kids to arrange them. I also create shapes and letters from sawdust and dried tea leaves while using them like clay.”