Assam Geography Teacher Wins National Award for Student-Led Literacy Initiative

A geography teacher in Assam has won this year's National Teachers' Award for turning his students into daily home tutors for their own mothers, many of whom never learned to read or write, according to a report by the Times of India. Rajesh Bordoloi, who teaches at Adarsha Tribal Higher Secondary School in Kalbari, Jorhat district, gives his Class 10 students an assignment that goes beyond the classroom: go home and teach your mother.

Under this programme, called "Each One Teach One," students walk their mothers through UPI payments, online banking, using smartphones and basic reading. Bordoloi started the initiative two years ago after noticing a growing gap between his tech-savvy students and their mothers, many of whom had little or no formal schooling and struggled with even basic technology, the Times of India reported.

For Bordoloi, the idea was simple: rather than confining digital literacy to the school gate, make children the ones carrying it home. "When a child becomes a teacher at home, education becomes a shared journey," he told the Times of India. "There is something deeply inspiring about seeing a student sit beside his or her mother and patiently explain how to use a mobile phone or make a digital payment."

Nine out of ten students in the programme belong to the agriculture-dependent Mising tribal community, spread across Majuli and nearby areas, per the report. What began in Kalbari has since spread to five more villages: Banhphala, Bhekelichapori, Dhankhuli, Laliti Chapori Gaon and Sarigharia.

For many of the mothers, the lessons are about more than convenience. Learning from their own children has become a source of motivation to keep sending their kids to school, since the arrangement gives the household a direct, visible return on education.

The school has built on the programme by using government-provided smart boards during parent-teacher meetings to demonstrate digital tools directly to mothers. Principal Rajib Kumar Baruah said the initiative had helped many women overcome their hesitation around technology, the Times of India reported.

Bordoloi's community work extends beyond digital literacy. For several years, he has also campaigned against child marriage, an effort that began in Bhekelichapori, where minor girls would routinely drop out of school and elope.

Bordoloi is one of 48 educators across the country to receive the National Teachers' Award this year. He was quick to deflect individual credit for the recognition. "This award is for my school, colleagues, students, parents and the community," he said, as per the Times of India report.

The programme's growth from a single village to six, entirely through word of mouth and visible results at home, has been cited as a model for how schools in similar tribal and rural settings could address adult literacy without requiring large government interventions. For now, in the villages around Kalbari, the daily routine remains unchanged: children come home from school not just with homework, but with a lesson plan for their mothers.