Forty years is a long time to pour your soul into something. But for Tame Yaku, it wasn’t long enough to be noticed — until now.
The headmistress of Government Secondary School, G-Sector, Naharlagun, has been selected as Arunachal Pradesh’s lone recipient of this year’s National Teachers’ Award — one of the most prestigious recognitions a teacher can receive in India. It’s a moment that’s been four decades in the making.
A One-Woman School in Pachin Village
When Yaku first walked into LP School at Pachin Village, Naharlagun on 30 November 1985, there was no staff room to settle into, no colleagues to consult. She was the only teacher. She taught every subject, every class, all by herself. That kind of assignment would break most people. For Yaku, it became the foundation of everything that followed. She went on to serve in some of Arunachal’s most remote and challenging postings — Nyapin in Kurung Kumey, Yanman Village in Changlang district — places where teaching wasn’t just a profession, it was an act of quiet courage.
Going Door to Door for Girls’ Education
Armed with a master’s degree in Rural Development and Sociology, Yaku never treated teaching as a 9-to-5 job. She knocked on doors — literally — persuading families, daily-wage workers, and economically struggling parents to send their daughters to school. She ran adult literacy sessions for women who had never seen a classroom. These aren’t things that show up in official records easily, but they shaped entire communities in ways that a textbook never could.
Reviving Culture, One Wednesday at a Time
In 2013, Yaku introduced something quietly radical — she asked students to wear traditional attire every Wednesday and Saturday. It sounds simple, but the idea behind it ran deep: that children who know where they come from stand taller wherever they go. She also led a contingent of 150 students to the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi, where they performed the Rikham Pada dance — a moment that families in Arunachal still talk about with pride.
A Teacher Who Stepped In When No One Else Would
What truly sets Yaku apart is that she refused to look away. She personally intervened to rescue children from molestation, including a case involving a young girl and her own uncle. She counselled families dealing with drug addiction and guided a child into a rehabilitation centre. She set up separate monthly counselling sessions for boys and girls at her school — because she understood that safe children learn better. She also built a School Management Committee that actually involved parents, not just in name, but in real decision-making.
Yaku told reporters she feels “humbled and happy” receiving the award. That understatement says everything about the woman. After four decades of showing up — in remote villages, in struggling homes, in the lives of children nobody else noticed — she never did it for the trophy. She did it because it needed to be done. And that, more than any award, is what makes her extraordinary.
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