[Photo: Winners of the Most Inspiring Tamil Teacher award are (from left) Mr Mohammed Yousoff of Blangah Rise Primary, Mr Kasinathan Veerasamy of Victoria Junior College and Mr Anbarasu Rajendran of Seng Kang Secondary.]

By Jessica Lim

MORE than 700 students from schools across the island wrote to Tamil Murasu recently to nominate their Tamil teachers for the Most Inspiring Tamil Teacher award.

The nominations, mostly in the form of essays, praised their teachers for their efforts and passion in teaching the Indian language.

One read: 'If you don't believe my Tamil teacher is good, come and sit in during my class.' Another wrote: 'My Tamil teacher is like my mother.'

This is the largest number of nominations that the event, held six times since 2003, has received.

This year's winners are: Blangah Rise Primary's Mr Mohammed Yousoff, 45, Victoria Junior College's Mr Kasinathan Veerasamy, 50, and Seng Kang Secondary's Mr Anbarasu Rajendran, 37.

The three winners each received a trophy and certificate, while merit-prize winners received a trophy each.

The students' recommendations were supported by school principals, vice-principals and teachers.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.