Madam Sakthivel Seetha started her second practicum while nine-months pregnant, but she was still determined to succeed as a Tamil teacher.

"I told myself this shouldn't be an excuse, so I just used as much technology as I could," the 23-year-old said. She was soon able to see the impact her lessons were having on students. "They even used those phrases (I taught them) in normal conversations with their friends," she said. "It really moved me."

After graduating at the top of her National Institute of Education class in July, she was rewarded again for her dedication on Saturday, picking up one of two inaugural Most Inspiring Trainee Teacher awards. The awards were given out at Tamil Murasu's annual Most Inspiring Tamil Teachers Awards ceremony.

Tamil Murasu editor J Rajendran said in a media release: "The future of Tamil language in Singapore depends not only on students speaking the language with passion, but also on new teachers who are able to nurture the student's passion."

Lifelong Inspiring Teachers awards were also presented to Mr V R P Manickam, Mr Pon Sundararasu and Mr S Muthiah for their years as veteran educators, alongside 11 primary school, secondary school and junior college teachers who received the Most Inspiring Tamil Teachers Awards. Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Education and Law, was the guest-of-honour at the ceremony, which was held at the Singapore Press Holdings News Centre Auditorium.