Teachers watch TZP. (Dipankar Chatterjee)

Burdwan, Feb. 8: Schoolteachers across Burdwan are seeing Taare Zameen Par to learn how to deal with slow-learners.

But what the teachers’ teachers are doing is illegal. They are showing pirated CDs of the film on a dyslexic child.

The weeklong training for primary school teachers is meant to stress the need for a “proper and joyful learning system”.

The district primary school council has obtained video CDs of the film and is playing them for 4,500 teachers under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

In the film, art teacher Aamir Khan helps fellow teachers, an eight-year-old boy and his parents come to terms with the child’s learning disability. His uncharacteristic teaching and sensitivity to the child’s problem help unravel the ordinary student’s extraordinary skill in painting. The boy, once derided by teachers, becomes much admired.

The idea to screen the film struck council chairman Sahidul Haque after he saw it in a theatre. He mooted the idea at a meeting with additional district magistrate Abanindra Nath Singha and the proposal was greenlighted at once.

“Aamir’s role should be the role model for every teacher,” said Haque.

The circle inspectors of the council have hired television sets, VCD players and pirated CDs for the screening.

The film’s distributor in the east, Venkatesh Films, said the shows were illegal.

Haque said he had procured “original CDs”. But Venkatesh Films said CDs and DVDs of Taare Zameen Par had not been released yet.

Its manager, Debasish Sarkar, added that such shows would be illegal even after the official release. “VCDs and DVDs are only for home entertainment and not public viewing. We’ll lodge a complaint.”

Singha said he was not aware of whether the CDs were pirated or genuine.

Teachers, who walked out excited after a show, said they had learnt a lot. Baruni Chatterjee, from Ranigunj, said: “We often neglect students like the boy in the film. We’ll treat them differently now.”