National Teachers Awards 2026: President Honours 82 Teachers

India observed Teachers' Day on 5 September 2026. President Droupadi Murmu handed over the National Awards to Teachers at a function in New Delhi the same day. Teachers drawn from every part of the country were honoured on the stage.

How many were honoured

The award this year went to 82 teachers and educators. They were picked from three different streams of the education system. School education supplied the largest group. Higher education and skill training supplied the rest.

What the President told the teachers

The President called education the most effective way of turning the Constitution's promise of equality of opportunity into practice. She credited teachers with bringing the dropout rate in primary schools down to almost nothing, and she thanked every teacher for that national success. School education, she said, is the base on which the whole system stands. Knowledge and skills can be picked up at any age, but lessons in good conduct work best in childhood. She asked teachers to look out for the shy child, the first-generation learner, the child who moves from a village school to a big city school and the child with special needs. Academic excellence, skill development and entrepreneurship, she said, matter greatly for the country's growth, and making India the skill capital of the world and a knowledge superpower is a national priority.

What the Prime Minister told the winners

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the award winners at his residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg a day before the ceremony. He asked teachers to watch for signs of drug use in children and to help them break the habit. He called excessive screen time a major worry and suggested sports, physical games and creative work as the way out of it. He asked teachers to protect the innocence of childhood and to channel a child's natural curiosity. Citing the National Education Policy, he asked them to take children outside the classroom and to teach values such as the dignity of labour.

Why the date matters

Teachers' Day falls on the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a former President of India. The President laid floral tributes to him at Rashtrapati Bhavan the same day, and the Prime Minister paid him homage in his own message.