‘Kindest Teacher Award’ announced

The award will carry a cash prize and a citation, based on entries from students and parents of all schools in Chennai, whether private, government, aided, unaided, matriculation, ICSE and CBSE. The winner will be chosen by a jury nominated by the Pinto family and the award presented on her first death anniversary on August 27, 2018. 

“The nominations will be taken directly from the stakeholders – teachers and parents. It does not just depend on the number of nominations. There could be a proactive teacher asking students to nominate him or her. We will be going by anecdotal evidence and decide the winner,” said her son Sanjay Pinto, lawyer and journalist. 

Judith Pinto was a teacher at Don Bosco School in Egmore for 31 years. Loved by her students and colleagues for her kind and gentle nature, her family has announced this award. 

Her ‘month’s mind’ memorial service was held at Don Bosco Primary School recently and it was attended by the school alumni, teachers and senior government officials. Her son, Sanjay Pinto recalled his mother’s motto of treating every child in her class like her own. “In this age of corporal punishment and child abuse, my mother’s legacy of kindness must live on. In keeping with Don Bosco’s credo ‘not by blows but by kind words’, it was remarkable that she never ever scolded a student in her three-decade-long stint at the school, evident from the messages I’ve been flooded with from her students all over the world. We usually have awards for teachers based on academic results or projects that they have supervised. But one exclusively for kindness is perhaps a first of its kind.,” he said. 

Judith Pinto was affectionately called ‘Judy Miss’ by generations of students at Don Bosco School, Egmore. She was a kindergarten teacher for 31 years. She was loved by her students and adored by her colleagues for her kind and gentle nature.