Hillary heaps praise on Aamir for his education campaign

Mumbai, July 18 (PTI) Bollywood actor Aamir Khan
Saturday came in for special praise from US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton for his acting pursuits and also his
involvement with education campaigns.

"It is a great delight to be here with Aamir Khan, who
is not only a Bollywood icon but also the great advocate for
education," Clinton said during a special interactive session
with the students of Xavier College here in which Khan was
also present.

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

Khan, the brand ambassador of the education campaign
Teach India, who brought fore the need of special care to the
differently-abled students with his award-winning film on
autism "Taare Zameen Par", said children should be encouraged
to be creative in their life and there should be less emphasis
on memorisation.

"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."

Supporting Khan's view, Clinton said, "I think the
actual requirement to become successful in the world is
cooperation and collaboration among people and among
countries."

Clinton said that it was important to reach out to
those children who fall behind and don't have equal
opportunities in life to make education effective.

"I want the government and educational institutions to
narrow the gap between talent and opportunities to give every
child a chance to fulfill his or her god-given potential," she
said.

According to the former First Lady of the US, the
technological advances presented India with a better
opportunity to reach out to many people.

Khan, on the other hand, rued that not many bright
people come forward to take up teaching as a profession.

"I would like to see that we people give top priority
to the kind of value education deserves, we are still a little
away from that. I would like to see that one day the top jobs
are in the field of teaching. Majority of people who are into
teaching today are people who are not able to get jobs
elsewhere," he claimed. PTI BB
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