'Cinema Wale Babu': Teacher Travels on Bike Strapped with TV to Educate Students in Chhattisgarh

A teacher in Chhattisgarh has come up with an amusing way of teaching students during this pandemic — through a portable television.

Ashok Lodhi, a government school teacher in Koriya district’s Phatpani region travels around on his bike with an LED TV strapped to the vehicle, imparting knowledge through cartoon and songs.

Lodhi has been hailed as 'Cinema Wale Babu' for his little efforts to teach students from class 1-5 through ways that are most loved by children. He says that it give him immense pleasure when students wait for him enthusiastically as he travels around, as reported by ANI.

Receiving the encouragement from the local administration, Lodhi worked upon this idea as this wouldn't incur him any extra cost. The television set up belonged to the institution he taught at and he was anyway planning to visit houses to teach children.

Dr Alok Shukla, principal secretary, School Education Department, Chhattisgarh, lauded Lodhi’s initiative saying that such innovations are rare to find even in big cities.

"I want to congratulate district administration for their efforts at ensuring seamless education in the district. A teacher known as “Cinema Wale Babu” has tied a TV on his motorbike and going to different localities to teach children using cartoons and music. Such innovations are rare to find in even big cities," said Shukla.

A student even said that learning from ‘Cinema Wale Babu’ is fun as they can watch cartoon as well as study at the same time.

Lodhi's efforts have also been hailed by local teachers and one of them admitted to the excitement of children on seeing him arrive.

Students learn the best and easily through the audio-visual medium, he said.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the Chhattisgarh government had launched an online portal, ‘Padhai Tuhar Duar’, under which it provided education to students stuck at their homes amid the lockdown. The state government took the scheme further in August and introduced ‘Padhai Tuhar Para’ which aims to teach children with the help of the community in their localities and villages.

( with inputs from ANI )