National, 7th July, 2022: Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA®), India’s first teacher certification trademark, announced the winners of the 7th Edition of CENTA Teaching Professionals Olympiad (TPO), 2021. CENTA® TPO, a flagship international competition for teachers, rewards, recognizes, and most importantly, celebrates accomplishments, creating motivation for the teaching profession.

In collaboration with Reliance Foundation (India’s largest philanthropic foundation), Education World, Oxford University Press, and the University of Buckingham, CENTA TPO 2021 was a two-stage international online competition for assessing teachers’ competencies. In line with the government’s focus on Nipun, two notable additions to the program this year were the “school leaders” track and the “early childhood educators” track.

The winners of CENTA TPO, 2021 were felicitated in a two-hour online event. Respected global education leaders, like Vyankatesh Kharage, Chairman’s office, Reliance Industries Ltd., Yash Mehta, Executive Director, Oxford University Press, Shivani Kapoor, Founder, ThinkStartup and, Bhavin Shah, CEO, EducationWorld were present to virtually grace the felicitation of CENTA TPO 2021 winners in 16 subjects.

Arnab Choudhury, from St Francis De Sales School in Guwahati, was announced the national topper for the CENTA TPO 2021. Jaishree Iyer, from DPS in Pune, came in second, while Nisha Mohsin, from GEMS Legacy School in Dubai, came in third. Radika Srinivasan from The Shri Ram Universal School in Thane was announced the winner of the ‘school leaders track’. All four of them were awarded the Reliance Foundation Teacher Award, each with a cash prize of ₹1 lakh and a citation. Anjali Dayal from Shiv Nadar School in Gurugram won the ‘early childhood track.’ Subject toppers of all the 20 subject tracks were also announced and invited to the online event through surprise messages. In one winner’s words, “since today was the CENTA TPO results announcement, I sat glued to the screen since 5 pm, with my phone next to me, wondering if I may just be one of the winners”!

Furthermore, there were additional prizes, including cash awards and citations as part of Reliance Foundation Teacher Awards, and an exciting opportunity to work on action research projects under the guidance of Professors from the University of Buckingham in the UK, etc., for the Government segment toppers Ivaturi Aditya Satya Bharathi from High Z P P High School, Thondavaram, East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, Venus Solanki from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Mamta Dhami from Government Primary School, Ratora, Uttarakhand and Smita Dey from Kendriya Vidyalaya ONGC, Panvel, Maharashtra and the B.Ed. segment toppers Vasunddhra- Student of the CENTA-Manipal PGCP Programme, Srishti Bharti- Unity Law And P.G College, Lucknow and Atiya Rawat- MIT ADT University, Pune.

During the felicitation ceremony, Vyankatesh Kharage, Chairman’s office, Reliance Industries Ltd., stated, “The Reliance Foundation Teachers Award aims to reward and recognize excellent teachers in the country through our partnership with CENTA. We are privileged to honour the teachers and recognize their excellence through the CENTA TPO.”

Sharing his thoughts on the growth and development of teachers, the eminent school leader, Aditya Chowdhury, from Sunbeam School, Varanasi, said, “I would like to congratulate all the participants. Having worked closely with all the participants, qualifying for the TPO finals is a tremendous achievement. CENTA has evolved from running the TPO to becoming an ecosystem. It has done a fantastic job supporting teachers’ professional development.” Additionally, many school groups also conducted “mini-TPO preliminary tests” in partnership with CENTA. Organizations like Focus High Schools, Sunbeam Educational Institutions, the Key Educations Foundation, and others utilized this opportunity for their teachers’ professional development.

In addition to the awards and recognitions, CENTA’s Founder and CEO, Ms. Ramya Venkataraman and its COO, Ms. Priyanka Arya, along with the top 3 national winners and school leader track winner, announced CENTA TPO, 2022, highlighting the existing format of competition will continue.