All eyes are trained on the teacher’s table where there is a small model of a stage. The children know that the stage will soon come alive with puppets who will regale them with a story.
The students wait with bated breath at a primary school in Daulatpur village of Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh. Their teacher Vimalwani Dubey soon starts the puppet show and children clap loudly.
Dubey is a government teacher and has been teaching since 1998. Two years ago, she was transferred to the Daulatpur Government Primary School and her students now look forward to coming to school because the 51-year-old teacher uses fun methods to drive the lesson home. She also has a YouTube channel.
Also Read: Keeping Education on Track
“I attended the training organised by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training for 15 days at Udaipur. It was there that we learnt how to use puppets to keep young children engaged in learning,” the 51-year-old teacher told Gaon Connection.
Dubey learnt how to make four different kinds of puppets at the workshop. “There were rod puppets, finger puppets, glove puppets, and shadow puppets. I use a lot of the first three kinds and the children just love it. All these puppets are made from materials that cost nothing,” she said.
“We learn about numbers, environment, science and many other subjects, using the puppets. Children pay more attention and retain what the puppets tell them,” Dubey smiled.
Also Read: A black umbrella, an LED TV and bagless education — a primary govt teacher in Bilaspur drives change
Dubey is a government teacher and has been teaching since 1998.
Abid Khan, whose daughter Hamsheera is a student in the class of Dubey, couldn’t agree more. “I have three children of which just one studies in Miss Dubey’s class. When she comes home and repeats what she learnt at school that day, we can clearly see the difference when we compare her manner of speaking and explaining with that of my other two children who go to another school,” Abid Khan who is a daily wage labourer, told Gaon Connection.
Banshilal Chauhan, an official at the education department’s Block Resource Centre, was all praises too.
“Miss Dubey uses innovative techniques to improve the children’s grasping abilities. Other teachers in the department are also learning from her and adopting her methods of teaching,” he told Gaon Connection.
The 51-year-old teacher said she was proud to be a government teacher who works in rural areas. “It is a matter of great pride to me that I am a government school teacher and am getting an opportunity to teach children who come from underprivileged homes,” she told Gaon Connection.
“I have always worked in rural areas as a teacher. From 1998 to 2008, I was at Sitamau village. In 2008 when I came to the primary school in Bhalaur, I was fortunate to attend a training workshop organised by the state government on how to make classroom teaching entertaining and at the same time informative,” she recalled.
