Chemistry teacher V. Komathy has won the Global Teacher Award 2021, given out to recognize remarkable educators at school and college level.

The 38-year-old, who teaches at SMK Ave Maria Convent in Ipoh, Perak, won the annual award by AKS Education on Sept 29, but received it at a virtual ceremony via the official Facebook page and YouTube channel of the India-based education group, yesterday.

Komathy told Bernama that she was shocked when received a notification email from the organisers on Sept 29 that she had won the award.

"I still can't believe being selected as the winner out of 321 candidates from Malaysia and about 26,000 entries from other countries.

"Of that number, 500 had been shortlisted, including six Malaysian candidates," Bernama quoted the mother of three telling reporters when met at her residence yesterday.

Komathy, who has been an educator for 14 years, holds a Master's degree in Chemistry Education from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), and is currently pursuing a doctorate in the same field at UPSI.

She has reportedly produced several internationally-recognized product innivations to pique students' interest in chemistry - including the Chem-Ester Kit: Chem-Ester Kit 2.0, and Biomass Activated Carbon (BAC) for Toxic Dyes Removal: Towards a Sustainable Environment.

The former is a guidance module in the form of a game card, designed to increase students' mastery of writing molecular formulas, structures, naming for alkane compounds, alkenes, alkanes, alcohols, carboxylic acids and ester, while the latter innovation is to develop biomass activated carbon from three agricultural wastes, namely sugarcane fibre, coconut husk and banana peel to remove toxic dyes from contaminated water.

"Chemistry is a less popular subject because it is full of formulas and involves a lot of calculations, so we need to educate in an entertaining way so as to grab students' interest in this subject and avoid them giving up easily," Komathy told the national news agency.

In addition, Komathy has also produced several scholarly works, and has taken students from her previous school, SMK Buntong, to represent the country at several national and international level academic events.

"When people say I am one of the inspirations to other teachers, I feel my inspiration comes from the students because it is towards their needs that I strive for excellence," she said.

Kudos to Komathy on this impressive achievement. Here's wishing her all the best in achieving greater heights, and making the country proud, in the future.


Source: Bernama
Photo source: Bernama