This national award-winning teacher from Telangana is taking learning beyond the classroom

On September 5, Teacher’s Day, President Droupadi Murmu, conferred the National Teacher’s Awards to 48 exceptional educators across India.

Among them, Bhavani Bompelly of MPPS Girls Gandhari in Kamareddy, Telangana, stands out for transforming the way children in her school learn and expanding access to education in her community.

When Bhavani began her work at the school, there were just 40 students. Today, there are 130 students. She has also pioneered pre-primary education and created play-based and digital-learning environments to make classrooms more engaging and accessible.

Using innovative approaches such as the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract method, along with low-cost teaching aids, she has helped students overcome barriers in mathematics and language learning.

Bhavani won the State Teachers Award in 2025.

The educator also uses YouTube to break down simple concepts and make learning engaging and fun. Her lessons use songs, games, visual demonstrations, and simple explanations to teach everything from multiplication and language to environmental studies. 

Her videos offer an interesting mix, from mathematics tricks for competitive exams and ICT tools for learning and teaching to pre-primary activities and festival celebrations.

Her efforts also include child safety awareness. Using rhymes and age-appropriate methods, she has taught young children about good and bad touch. She also organises awareness sessions for parents.

Bhavani’s work extends beyond the classroom. She established the Navajeevan Foundation to support orphaned children and has coached students from rural communities to prepare for state residential school entrance examinations, opening up opportunities that might otherwise have remained out of reach.

Speaking about the award in a video on YouTube, she said, “I am very, very happy and grateful for this National Award. I thank my parents, every teacher who taught me, my family, my husband, my students, the villagers, my colleagues and everyone who supported me in my journey. I am also grateful to YouTube and Instagram for helping me reach more people.

"The Rs 50,000 prize money that comes with the award will be used through the Navajeevan Foundation, which we have been running for the past two years, to support orphaned and semi-orphaned children and for school and education development.”