Hillary Clinton praises Aamir Khan

As a part of her visit to India, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and the reigning Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan participated in an interactive session called "Education -  Serving to Change Our World" held at St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, India, this past Saturday.

Aamir Khan was chosen by the US consulate to share the dais with Hillary Clinton. On this occasion, he aired his views on Indian teaching methods and problems faced by the children in India in terms of studies.
 
He was of the opinion that in the country the report cards matter more than the actual reasoning power. “We should encourage those minds who are thirsty and hungry for knowledge. Children who believe in questioning, searching, disagreeing and not just memorising and cramming should be appreciated,” he stated.

He next spoke about the importance of teaching. Aamir brought out the issue of negligence shown towards the teaching profession. By giving priority to medical and engineering, the profession is left with less or no scope when it comes to choosing a career. He suggested, “Teaching should be a high paying job so that youngsters should aim at becoming teachers. I would like to see that one day in India, teaching is the most highly paid job. We should give so much value to teaching as a profession that every kid that comes out of school and college should feel that he or she wants to be a teacher.”
 
Lack of proper guidance and poor assumptions towards this profession makes students to neglect such a reputable career. Today, our educational system emphasises more on memorising rather than rational thinking, Aamir went on to add further.
 
Hillary Clinton was extremely impressed with the high vision of the actor and had completely agreed with him. Praising him for his acting pursuits and also his

involvement with education campaigns, she said, "

 

It is a great delight to be here with Aamir Khan, who is not only a Bollywood icon but also a great advocate for education."

"I am here to see how US and India can work for the common cause of education, which is the great equalizer and gateway to opportunities," Clinton said.

Aamir Khan is the ambassador of the education campaigns Teach India and Teach For India which is based on the Teach For America model. He has been actively involved in the cause of education in India for years. He also brought forth the need of special care to the differently-abled students with his award-winning, internationally acclaimed film on autism called
'Taare Zameen Par'.  He further added, "We have to tell our kids to be more caring and I think that is going to make a huge difference from 25 years onwards."

Agreeing with Khan, Clinton said, "Aamir has come up with some excellent points to tell us what all is required to make education important. We have the best of educational institutes in our country but they are not for everyone. Part of our challenge is to provide education to those who don't get it easily."

"Competition is part of a human's genes. I think the actual requirement to become successful in the world is cooperation and collaboration among people and among countries," she explained.

Both Clinton and Khan made an earnest call for bright youngsters to take up teaching to narrow the gap between talent and education opportunities across India.