IIT Hyderabad Faculty Kirti Chandra Sahu to Receive National Teachers Award 2026

Kirti Chandra Sahu, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad in Telangana, has been selected to receive the National Teachers Award 2026. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the honour at an official ceremony scheduled to be held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on September 5, 2026.

The national-level function is organised every year on Teachers' Day by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education. The annual event confers national awards on the best teachers across the country, chosen through a rigorous, transparent, and online selection process.

A total of 69 educators have been selected for this year's awards. The list comprises 48 school teachers alongside 21 teachers and faculty members representing Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and polytechnics.

Professor Sahu from IIT Hyderabad is among four higher education faculty members selected by the ministry. The other recipients in this category are Avlokita Agrawal from IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand, Srikant Gollapudi from IIT Bhubaneswar in Odisha, and Mithun Radhakrishna from IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

The school education category features teachers from across India, including Rajesh Bordoloi from Adarsha Tribal Higher Secondary School at Kalbari in Jorhat, Assam; Khushboo Kumari from Urdu Primary School Bidaydih in Bihar; Suman Goel from GSKV Pooth Kalan in Delhi; and Amutha J from PM Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya in Madurai.

Nominations for the national awards were invited online through the Rashtriya Puraskar Portal at awards.gov.in. The process included specific provisions for self-nomination, institutional nomination, and peer nomination as part of the 'Jan Bhagidari' initiative.

Ahead of the presentation, the Ministry of Education highlighted the ceremony on social media platform X on September 3, stating: "Two days to go to honour the dedication, excellence and remarkable contribution of teachers in shaping young minds and inspiring generations."

According to the official notification, short documentaries depicting the exemplary work done by each awardee will be showcased before the audience during the ceremony at Vigyan Bhawan.