Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was all praise for a teacher from Tamilnadu for her innovative way of teaching students in the Covid-induced lockdown.

In his 72nd edition of Mann Ki Baat radio programme, he said, “I read about a teacher from Tamilnadu. Her name is Hemalata N K, and she teaches the oldest language of the world Tamil at a school in Villupuram. Even the Covid-19 pandemic could not create hurdles in her teaching. Challenges definitely were there but she found out an innovative way.”

“She recorded all the 53 chapters of the course, created animated videos, put them in a pen drive and distributed that amongst her students. Her students got a lot of help from this; they understood the chapters visually. Along with this, she kept interacting with her students telephonically. Thus, the study became quite interesting for the students,” he said.

“All over the country during this corona time, the innovative methods that the teachers have adopted, the course material they have creatively prepared, those are invaluable in this period of online studies. I request all the teachers to definitely upload these course materials on the Diksha Portal of the Education Ministry. This will help students who are staying in far-flung areas of the country, a lot,” he said.

Also, S Dhilip, an English teacher at the Government Higher Secondary School in Satyamangalam village of Gingee Taluk, who received the National Award for Best Teacher in 2020, was lauded by the PM in a tweet in the official handle of Mann Ki Baat.

“Shri Dhilip S has used augmented and virtual reality to make the learning of English exciting for children. He developed phonetic techniques & models for learning grammar with games. He has been conferred with National Teachers Award 2020 #ourteachersourleaders,” the tweet said.

Dhilip had developed an artificial intelligence programme for children who wish to pursue technology in their day-to-day life.