education

Updated: Aug 30, 2020 21:04 IST

The video of a school teacher of Bihar teaching mathematics tables to children through her innovation has gone viral on the social media, drawing attention of the likes of industrialist Anand Mahindra and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. Besides, it has invited innumerable interesting ways of teaching tables to kids from Twitterati from different parts.

In the video, first posted on the ‘Teahers of Bihar’ facebook page of the Bihar education project council (BEPC) and later shared on twitter, Ruby Kumari, a teacher at the upgraded middle school in Bounci block of Banka district, has been shown teaching table of nine with the help of 10 fingers and by involving children, which they seem to thoroughly enjoy.

Can’t tell you how many of my life’s issues this one simple calculation has solved wow! Sending it to #byju to include it in their teaching methods. https://t.co/nC8qIojGVF — Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) January 22, 2020

“Whaaat? I didn’t know about the clever sortut. Wish she had been my teacher. I probably would have been a lot better at the subject,” tweeted Mahindra, which has received 42-K likes, while 11.7k people have retweeted it, many with their comments on the interesting approach of involving children by making learning fun.

One of them is Shah Rukh Khan. “Can’t tell you how many of my life’s issues this one simple calculation has solved, wow! Sending it to Byju to include it in their teaching methods,” Khan tweeted.

There were several others who shared their own experiences and innovations in table learning, while some also questioned if it could be applied for all tables. But it is the teaching approach and a demonstration of activity-based learning that has appealed to all. So far, over 3.5-lakh people have watched the video, while it has been shared nearly 1.5-lakh times.

Ruby also thanked all for the great encouragement she got, more so as a teacher from a little-known and mostly maligned government school system in Bihar. She is a teacher in Banka, which gave Bihar the concept of ‘Unnayan Banka’, which has now been upscaled as ‘Unnayan Bihar’ project to ensure access to quality education using technology and innovation in the secondary and higher secondary schools.

“I thank superstar Shahrukh Khan and Anand Mahindraji for liking my video and retweeting it. I am very happy my innovation is being watched by people across the India. I am thankful to the ‘Teachers of Bihar-the Changemakers’ for giving me the opportunity by sharing my video on their platform,” she tweeted, adding she would like all government school teachers to make learning fun through innovation and activity-based approach without the burden of heavy schoolbags.

Director, mass education, Vinodanand Jha, said Ruby’s innovation and involvement should work as an inspiration for all the school teachers. “There is need to give platform to such talents and give them encouragement. I am confident there are many talented teachers in Bihar. All we need to do is to bring them on the forefront. After all, in schools, involving children by making learning entertaining and meaningful is what matters the most,” he added.