Harnam Singh’s innovative teaching method ‘Big Boss House’ promotes joyful learning among students

Inspired from famous TV show ‘Big Boss’, Harnam Singh Jamwal—an innovative teacher has conceptualized an innovative method ‘Big Boss House’ that helps the students to learn practically in a play-way method.
Jamwal, a government school teacher at Middle School Padder in Rajouri district, believes that it is better for students to learn something which is never forgotten rather than becoming a rotten study.
The 42-year-old teacher said, “Students are able to learn any difficult topics easily and enthusiastically with the help of games. Big Boss House is an innovative game based activity which works on multiple skills of children and promotes the holistic development of the students.”
This activity is based on a popular television reality series that also enhances students’ thinking ability and teaches them how to work harmoniously as a team.
Jamwal further said that the teachers give different tasks to be completed every week which enhances students’ learning in various aspects thus advocating a wholesome learning experience. “This new age teaching technique is also elementary in increasing the interest, focus and curiosity of the students towards different subjects.”
The process of implementation of this method is aligned with the class curriculum. Though this idea can be applied in all the classes, it is best suited for the students of class 4th to 8th.
“This innovative teaching method promotes joyful learning in the class and is an ideal learning process through games and activities for all the subjects,”Jamwal said, adding “The concept behind the Big Boss House was to teach the students differently about the various things.”
He said that he wanted to teach students everything practically. “In this process we used to choose one topic and take the students to the field and make them learn practically.”
The innovative teacher further said that the main motive behind this was that students’ knowledge should not be limited to the books only but they should know it practically also.
“We have created a small kitchen garden in the school where I take students for the practical tasks. There i teach them many topics like ploughing, harvesting, weeding and many more,” he said.
Jamwal believes that in this way, students understand in a better way. “By applying this concept students were able to answer all the questions quickly. I believe that learning by this concept cannot be forgotten ever as we implement it from the ground level practically.”
He said, “During my service, I even taught my students an essay on ‘The Cow’ practically. I bought a cow infront of them and accordingly asked my students to write the whole essay by observing the cow.”
Narrating one of his activities with the students, Jamwal said, “A few time back, we organised the ‘Chipko Movement’ in our school. We have about 25 walnut plants in the school ground and I gave each student one plant and they accordingly choose their favorite one by sticking to it.”
“In this way they practically got to know what Chipko movement was, besides they also learned about the practicality of growing and reaping the walnuts,” he said.
Jamwal’ s concept got recognized at national level. “Among more than 60 teachers from across India, I am the only teacher from Jammu and Kashmir who is awarded the National Innovative Award in 2020 for the innovative idea of ‘Big Boss House’,” he said.
He further said that so far he has submitted 38 innovative ideas. “Recently, I was invited by the Chhattisgarh government to give a presentation on this concept and there I was appreciated by the CM of Chhattisgarh for my innovative work.”
He said that so far this concept has been implemented nationwide in many schools. “I was also awarded the best teacher award of Jammu and Kashmir this year on 5th September.”
Jamwal says that during the Covid-19, he donated his one month salary for the education of the students. “I also handed over my personal vehicle to the Reasi district administration to help the Covid-19 patients and doctors to travel to the hospital at that time of need.”