Jhelum education dept directs teachers to watch Bollywood, Hollywood films during summer vacation

The District Education Officer (DEO) Jhelum, Rao Abdul Karim, has directed the teachers to watch Bollywood and Hollywood films as homework during the summer vacation break.

In the letter written to all the assistant education officers, the DEO directed them to "intimate all teachers and head teachers to complete a list of tasks during summer vacation 2024."

Karim, in the letter, advised teachers to "go through textbooks and the subjects which have been assigned to them in school timetable".

"Assessment will be taken from teachers in September or October 2024," he added.

DEO also asked teachers to write a book review and submit the assignment to the concerned AEO.

The interesting task for the teachers is to watch some Bollywood and Hollywood films to "cover the concept of inclusive Education."

The films included in the task are Tare Zameen Per, Hichki, Black, I am Kalaam, Sawades, A Beautiful Mind, Forrest Gump, Theory of Everything, Pursuit of Happyness, Good Dinosaur, Wall E, Good will Hunting, Great Debaters, Spirit, Up, and Spirited away.

"Therefore, in view of above, you are directed to ensure compliance in true letter Spirit and intimate to all teachers and head teachers accordingly," he concluded the letter.

Reacting to the letter, Deputy Commissioner Jhelum Syed Rimla Ali condemned the directives issued by the DEO for teachers.

"This directive is misguided and has been revoked/recalled immediately to respect and uphold the dignity of our teachers," she said in a post on Facebook.

However, her condemnation was slammed by former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry, advising her to "see movies and read few books to enlighten herself."

"Decline of Civil service is so evident, instead of issuing a stupid directive DC Jhelum herself should see these movies and read few books to enlighten herself, when you use young officers for manipulating election results what quality of officers one can expect," the former federal minister said in a post on X.