OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Steel Education Excellence programme’s 8th Annual Award function was held at XLRI Auditorium. Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member- Planning Commission on Education and Social Justice, Government of India and Member–National Advisory Council, was the Chief Guest for the occasion. Dr. Jadhav previously worked as the Vice Chancellor for University of Pune, the largest traditional university in the world with around 6,50,000 students. Dr. Narendra Jadhav has contributed to 14 books and more than 100 research papers in national and international journals.

Awards were given away by Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Dr J J Irani, Ex-Director, Tata Sons and Mr. Sanjiv Paul, V.P (Corporate Services). 22 schools (20 schools from Jamshedpur and 2 schools from out-locations) had undertaken the TEEP assessment in the current year. 18 schools received commendation awards at the award function whereas 4 schools were given “certificate for participation”.

Baug-e-Jamsheed in the Pre-Primary category became the first school to break the 600 point barrier and win the coveted Dr J J Irani Award for Education Excellence. Under the TEEP umbrella, the schools were also awarded for their ‘Education Quality Improvement Projects’ (EQUIP) this year. Out of 39 EQUIPs received from various schools, 6 were recognized at the award function. Another category of recognition was ‘Good Practices of Schools’. Of the 98 promising practices identified by the assessment teams, seven were recognized at the award function. 95 trained assessors-including Principals, teachers and officers from Tata group of companies, guided by 3 mentors carried out the comprehensive task of assessing these schools.

In his welcome address, Mr. Sanjiv Paul, Chairman TEEP & Vice President Corporate Services, Tata Steel spoke about the evolution and growth of TEEP programme. He emphasized that TEEP is enabling Jamshedpur to become even better place to work, attract & retain talent. On the milestone of TEEP having crossed 10 years since its inception, Mr. N.K. Sharan, Vice President, Tata Quality Management Services, briefed the audience on the highlights of the TEEP journey from its early days. One of the highlights of the function was the inauguration of the TEEP website by the Chief Guest.

Dr Irani congratulated the award winners and participating schools. He added that the essence of excellence is participation and improvement; awards are just stepping stones for this unending journey. The Chief Guest Dr. Jadhav expressed his happiness at the good work being done by Tata Steel & TQMS and wished to spread this model of education excellence to other schools all over the country. The programme was attended by a number of Principals, teachers and students and managing committee members of more than 40 schools, senior government officials, Senior executives of Tata Group of Companies, Union leaders, retired executives, and senior citizens. Dr. Deepali Misra and Ms. Natasha Sood from TQMS conducted the program followed by Vote of thanks by Mr. P. Ramesh of TQMS.