New Delhi: Now, school teachers can nominate self for the National Teacher Awards to be presented on Sept. 5 by the President of India on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.

Teachers who have served at least four months in the academic session of 2017-18 before their retirement can also nominate themselves for the prestigious awards presented every year by the President under a scheme of the Central government to give public recognition for their outstanding contributions.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has introduced a provision of self-nomination for teachers for this award. Last date for online nomination of teachers for the awards is June 30.

School teachers and Heads of the Schools, working in government or private schools recognised by various Boards including Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), are eligible to apply for the national award to be presented on Sept.5.

“Only regular teachers and Heads of the schools are eligible for nomination, provided they do not have indulged in offering private tuitions to students,” a Ministry official said.

Selection of teachers for the award is set to be very competitive this year, with the HRD Ministry setting tougher criteria for evaluation of their performance.

Publication of research papers or articles in international or national journals, books in the last five years is one of the criteria for which the nominee teachers will get scores.

After the closing of the self-nomination process, the first level scrutiny of all the applications will be done by the District Selection Committee (DSC) under the District Education Officer.

Upon evaluation of the applications and verification of the supporting documents, each of the District Committees will select three nominations and send the list to the State Selection Committee which will re-evaluate all the nominations and send the list of best candidates to “an independent jury” at the National-level through the online portal.