Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
When a biology lesson turns to the nervous system, students in Radha Rajesh’s classroom may hear about Parkinson’s disease through a deeply personal story. A discussion on growth hormones may lead them to the childhood journey of footballer Lionel Messi. A lesson on traumatic brain injuries can take them beyond the textbook and into the real-life story of Michael Schumacher.
For Radha, these are not digressions from the syllabus. They are the syllabus coming alive.
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The biology teacher and Head of Department at New Horizon Public School, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, believes students learn best when they can connect a scientific concept with something they can see, feel or understand in the real world. Her approach has now earned her a place among the 48 school teachers selected for the National Teachers’ Award 2026, with Radha Rajesh representing CISCE. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the awards at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on September 5, Teachers’ Day.
For Radha, however, the recognition is less about a single achievement and more about years of trying to make children curious.
“Whenever I walk into a classroom, I carry one thought with me — my job is not just to explain a concept; it is to make students fall in love with the subject,” she said.
FROM A FAMILY OF TEACHERS TO THE CLASSROOM
Teaching was familiar territory for Radha long before it became her profession.
Her grandfather, mother, aunt and uncle were all teachers. Growing up, she watched them nurture curiosity and confidence in their students. She later began voluntarily teaching underprivileged children through her community, where she discovered how powerful a simple moment of understanding could be.
She remembers the excitement on a child’s face when a difficult concept finally made sense.
“I found immense joy in those interactions – especially that beautiful moment when a child understood a concept they had struggled with and their eyes lit up with confidence and excitement,” she recalled.
A conversation during a parent-teacher interaction involving her son eventually gave her the confidence to pursue teaching professionally. She joined New Horizon Public School in May 2014, beginning a journey that would take her from biology teacher to mentor and Head of Department.
She credits the school’s management, Principal Anupama Sethi, colleagues, students and parents for creating an environment in which she could experiment, learn and evolve.
WHEN A TEXTBOOK CONCEPT BECOMES A REAL-LIFE STORY
Radha’s classroom is built around connections.
While teaching the nervous system and synaptic connections, she has spoken about her father’s journey with Parkinson’s disease. When discussing traumatic brain injuries, she has used Schumacher’s skiing accident as a real-world reference. While teaching the pituitary gland and growth hormone, she connects the concept to Messi’s childhood experience with growth hormone deficiency.
The intention is to move students from remembering a definition to understanding why it matters.
Once that happens, she says, students often begin asking questions beyond the examination.
“If I can make a child look at the human body with wonder, connect science with life, develop a research mindset and leave the classroom thinking about how they can contribute to society, I feel I have truly done my job,” she said.
Her idea of success is therefore not restricted to marks. It is reflected in a student who starts investigating a topic independently, develops confidence to ask questions or begins thinking about how knowledge can be used to help others.
MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR THE CHILD
Keeping students engaged in an age of constant digital stimulation is another challenge she has had to navigate.
Radha uses animations, simulations, virtual laboratories, smart boards, interactive quizzes and AI-enabled resources to make difficult concepts more accessible. She also incorporates project-based activities, hands-on learning, field trips and problem-solving exercises to give students different ways of engaging with a subject.
The approach reflects the emphasis on experiential and differentiated learning in the National Education Policy 2020.
But she is equally clear that technology cannot replace the teacher or the student’s own judgement.
“I believe AI should not replace human thinking; it should amplify creativity, curiosity and deeper enquiry,” she said.
That distinction has become increasingly important in her classroom. In a world where information is available almost instantly, she wants students to learn how to question information, analyse it and decide whether it is reliable.
For her, the more important question is not how much technology a classroom uses, but whether it helps a child think better.
THE RECOGNITION IS NOT HER FIRST
The National Teachers’ Award is the latest addition to a list of recognitions that have followed her work in science education.
Radha has won the Teachers’ Insight Award conducted by the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, ISRO, in 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026, securing first place each time. She also received the Educator of Excellence Award in 2023. Earlier, she was awarded a Biotechnology Scholarship by the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology in 1996-97 for academic merit and interest in biotechnology.
Yet some of her most cherished moments have come without a certificate or trophy.
Former students have returned to tell her that her teaching changed their relationship with biology. Some are now doctors, researchers and other professionals. She remembers students sharing photographs from their early careers, including former students working in gynaecology and research.
“Sometimes we may not see the impact of a lesson immediately. A concept taught in a classroom today may quietly influence the direction of a child’s life years later,” she said.
She also has a YouTube channel – “Radha Rajesh – Biology Beyond the Classroom”, where she uploads videos and shorts on biology.
THE TEACHER SHE WANTS TO BE
Even as she prepares to receive one of the country’s major recognitions for school teachers, Radha does not want her students to remember her primarily for an award.
She wants them to remember the conversations, laughter, questions and real-life stories that made biology feel less like a subject and more like a way of understanding life.
She has also had parents describe her as their child’s “school mother”, a description she says she cherishes.
“Years from now, I hope my students remember me as their teacher who believed in them,” she said.
That belief runs through her teaching philosophy: notice the child, understand how they learn, give them room to question and help them discover what they are capable of becoming.
Her own journey began with teachers in her family showing her what education could do. More than a decade into her professional teaching career, she is trying to pass that lesson on to another generation.
“I hope they remember a teacher who made them feel seen, made them curious, believed in their potential and made them fall a little more in love with learning,” she said.
For Radha, that may be the most meaningful lesson of all, that sometimes the impact of a teacher is not visible at the end of a class or even at the end of a school year. It appears years later, when a former student looks back and realises that somewhere along the way, a teacher helped them believe they could do more.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
