Mr. Nisar Shaikh is a teacher and teacher educator with over 17 years of experience in state government schools in Maharashtra. He holds an MA, MEd, and an MA TESOL with Distinction from the University of Leeds, UK, specialising in teacher education, educational technology, and young learners.
Nisar has contributed to teacher education at the state level. As a State Academic Resource Person at the State Institute of English, Maharashtra, he helped design teacher training programs, develop learning materials, and supported statewide English language initiatives such as TEJAS and the Spoken English programme. He also served as a British Council ARMS mentor, guiding government school teachers in conducting classroom-based exploratory action research. His innovative contributions have been recognised through awards, including Best ELT Material Writer and Technology Wizard at successive TEJAS symposia. He has presented his work at national and international conferences, including the MA TESOL Conference at the University of Hull, UK (2023) and the Language in Education Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal (2025).
As an FDAI scholar, Nisar is aiming to master research-backed multilingual pedagogies to support diverse classrooms. Upon his return, he will develop a practical teacher training module with scalable lesson plans to be shared via local workshops, professional learning networks and monthly cluster-level meetings of teachers. This initiative aligns with an NEP 2020 objective to empower rural teachers to bridge the gap between home dialects and standard instruction. Outside the classroom, Nisar is a passionate traveller who loves exploring new cultures.