Vice-Premier presented laureates of Teacher of the Year competition

On Wednesday, Vice-Premier Galina Karelova presented laureates of the Teacher of the Year 2002 competition and schoolchildren who have won international contests on school subjects with presidential awards.

The Teacher of the Year award was established in 1990. Over the past 13 years 543 teachers have taken part in the competition. Fifteen awards are presented annually - for perfect teaching skills, for the creation of favourable conditions for comprehensive development of individualities, for the working out of authors' programmes and textbooks. The winners in the competition get a money bonus and a diploma.

In 2002, a record number of teachers from 79 Russian regions took part in the Teacher of the Year competition. Igor Smirnov, a teacher of school no. 9 in Gatchina, the Leningrad region, became the Teacher of the Year 2002.