Taare Zameen Par in teachers’ textbooks

The teachers of Delhi government, the MCD and the NDMC schools now have a certain Ram Shankar Nikumbh to look up to as a role model. Nikumbh is the character played by Aamir Khan in his directorial debut Taare Zameen Par.

The teachers of Delhi government, the MCD and the NDMC schools now have a certain Ram Shankar Nikumbh to look up to as a role model.

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Nikumbh is the character played by Aamir Khan in his directorial debut Taare Zameen Par.

The Directorate of Education is aggressively using the movie as a tool to inspire a change in the attitude of school teachers. It has evolved a training module based exclusively on Khan’s celluloid venture.

Started during the summer vacations last year, the first phase of this training programme will conclude by the end of January. The Directorate of Education would have successfully trained about 50,000 teachers of government, MCD and NDMC schools by the end of this phase.

“It was while watching this film that we realised it was a reflection of what happens in several government schools. Since it involves the audience emotionally, we thought it would be an excellent tool to help change our teachers’ attitude towards the students. First half of the film illustrates the problem and the second offers a practical solution,” said Education Secretary Rina Ray, who took about 150 officers from the Department of Education to watch the film.

The training module analyses about eight to nine sequences from the film to illustrate qualities of Khan’s character that teachers are expected to emulate.