Science_education

'I have yet to see schools which prepare students for jobs' EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BOMBAY - In an age where the "future is not what it used to be", how should schools change in order to equip students to face the changing facets of life ? Noted educationist Dr Rasik Shah, consultant for an education management research programme of the Aga Khan Foundation pro-ject, says "the ultimate aim of any school should be to create an awareness among the students ab-out the interrelation of living and non living things, the uniqueness of an individual and lastly to inculcate the concept of self worth and a joy in their living". According to Dr Shah, a serious problem in the education sector is the gulf that exists between the skills required for jobs in. the outside world and the scope of an average student's studies: "I have yet to come across any school which has the motto - 'preparing for a job' - in its diary. Most of the jobs may not exist when the stu-dents leave the school." "All of them write 'All round development'. What is all round development ? Is it something like a pumpkin ?". Dr Shah was speaking at a seminar on Innova-tive Teaching for Secondary School Curriculum on Friday.

The seminar, organised by the National Education Society, (NES) Bhandup in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Education Society, was held at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. It was one of the first work-shops of the Research & Develop-ment Centre for Education, Sci-ence and Technology that has been set up by the NES. Papers discussed at the seminar will be used for research to be under-taken by the recently set up centre. Educationists who attended and spoke at the two-day seminar included Dr Arvind Kumar, director, HBCSE, Principal V Seshan, AEES and Dr Nalin Sabharwal, teacher education de-partment, NCERT. Mr Shah, who has been at the forefront of innovations in educa-tion, suggested that the very de-finition of school needed ques-tioning: "What is a school ? Does it mean the classroom or is it the mind of the child ?" "Modern schools" as they are today, he said, are the result of the invention of the printing machine. Such schools became the repositories of information where "the literacy level was low and the monopoly of knowledge lay with the brahmins and the priest class. 300 years since, we still think the modern schools are the best. It is time we changed our outlook.". The modern system does not tolerate eccentrics though they are the ones who create this world, he said. "Almost all the hardware and software of today have been made by hackers who took no bath for days together, worked for hours to develop the whole architecture of software." Society expects schools to be like "wastebaskets" taking care of almost all evils like drugs, disci-pline, sex education, delinquency and global competition, he added. "There is a limit to the cogni-tive development of a child." Dr Shah urged teachers to change their style, become "rebels" if need be and teach subjects "his-torically".

The world according to the student EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Communication gaps are a se-rious problem. All the more so if one is attempting to educate another. At the seminar, Dr S C Agarkar of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) narrated a few exam-ples of the confusion that thrives on the difference between the education that is taught and that which is imbibed. Once during a trip to a tribal region in the state, his team came across a signpost which showed the burning-cigarette-poster with the admonishing cross drawn over it. "When we asked a tribal child to explain what it meant, he said it meant the drawing is wrong... which means he only knows that a red cross over something means that thing is wrong," said Dr Agarkar. The child's attitude, Dr Bor-kar felt, had a basis: "When we get an answer paper, all we do is take a red pen and start under-lining the mistakes committed." The joke, however, was not lost on the teachers present. "Yet do students even read the remarks made ?

All he does is check to see if the teacher has marked all the answers and if the total is right," Dr Borkar added. Dr Agarkar said he had once asked a group of students in a tribal area what their most diffi-cult subject was. The answer was English. "Then when we asked the students why they were being taught English, a child gave a very interesting answer. "We learn English so that if any igner attacked us we would know why they have attacked us,' the child said." "The boy then went on to convince me that 200 years ago we were defeated by the English because we did not know their language. Now we are better off.." The relation between the child's immediate environment and what he learns was the thrust of Dr Borkar's argument: "If the subject is irrelevant, why should students be motivated to learn ?" Dr Borkar said a study con-ducted by the HBCSE on BO disadvantaged students from the backward class in BMC schools had shown that all they needed was confidence to make them successful. "We decided (in the remedial teaching exercises) to keep a question box in the room since all students have a lot of questions to ask. On the first day itself we received 120 questions and all these from students who were not supposed to have the level to pass exams," he said.

One of the questions asked by the student which brought out the dichotomy in our education system was on the human blood group.-- "We have been taught that human beings have four blood groups- A, B, AB and O -- and that if the blood group of the patient and the donor do not match, the patient dies. I say this is wrong. In my house, mos-quitoes and bed bugs which bite everybody do not die..." Speaking in a similar vein, Dr Arvind Kumar, stressed that cur-riculum needed to be integrated and taught "historically" or what he called "with a human face". He welcomed the National Education Policy's decision to in-tegrate the study of mathematics and science. Dr Kumar also spoke on the need for curriculum designers to be aware of the cognitive process of learning of children. "Many a time, children who are called stu-pid actually have a different cognitive framework which clashes with the cognitive framework of the subject taught," he said while speaking to Indian Express. "Research in the field of scien-ce education is in the embryonic stage," he said and stressed that the first requisites of a good R & D centre is resource people and not funds as is widely believed. "What is important is that the staff should not take it as an escape from the rigours of science education," he said. He accepted that the method of teaching Mathematics was wrong and advocated that it be taught more informally. "It's much the same for science education also. We start from the wrong end with definitions and axioms. We should be dealing with ideas first," he said.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had recommended in 1991 the expansion of the pro-gramme to the entire State from its present operation in 1,000 schools in 15 districts. However, on July 3 the axe fell on the pro-gramme. This has come in for allround criticism. Members of the scientific and academic community in the country and abroad have appealed to Digvijay Singh, through signature campaigns, petitions and individual letters, to reverse the order. "The decision and the order smacks of high-handedness," said M.G.K. Menon, former Union Minister for Science and Technology, who had been closely associ-ated with the programme in its early days. "To stop educational programmes, involv-ing practical scientific demonstrations, of the nature that I know are carried out in the Hoshangabad programme, in my view is entirely wrong." he said in a letter. "Allowing HSTP to be killed would be a tremendous loss to Madhya Pradesh and the country," said Yash Pal, the physicist and former Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), in his letter to the Chief Minister. "Such efforts come only once or twice in a century," he observed.
"Decentralised governance" is the catchword today for many of the actions of the Madhya Pradesh government. The facade of that same premise has been used to put an end to years of dedicated work by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Eklavya that conducted the pro-gramme in the State-run rural schools. The sequence of events that led up to the closure would suggest that the Chief Minister himself may have been misled and not have been fully made aware of the game plan. In the end, however, he found it con-venient to play along.

- Axing a science teaching programme, R. RAMACHANDRAN, Frontline, 13/09/2002, /eldoc/n24_/13sept02frn1.pdf
- Closure of Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) comes in for Close Scrutiny, Mainstream, 27/07/2002, /eldoc/n22_/27jul02mns1.pdf

THE Madhya Pradesh Government has finally acted on the Hoshangabad Science Training Programme (HSTP) (see The Hindu Sunday Magazine dated June 30). On July3, the Government extended the science curriculum prevalent in the rest of the State to Hoshangabad District, making HSTP a supplementary curriculum. The non-governmental organisation, Eklavya, which is implementing the programme, was not taken into confidence and came to know over a week later. The HSTP or Hoshangabad Vigyan, introduced in the district in 1978 in government schools, for the first time used a universally acknowledged pedagogical approach to the teaching of science. The programme covered about 1000 schools in 13 districts, with the bulk in Hoshangabad and Harda. It seems unlikely that faced with the prospect of implementing a full-fledged science curriculum, schools will opt for HSTP as a supplementary one.- Of laziness and tenancy, MEENA MENON, Hindu, 11/08/2002, /eldoc/n24_/laziness_and_tenancy.html

Point by point response by Vinod Raina to the Note circulated by R.Gopalakrishnan, Secretary to the Chief Minister, Government of Madhya Pradesh, detailing the Government’s case for closing down HSTP.

- Rejection of the Curriculum of Eklavya Implemented, 22/07/2002, /eldoc/n24_/22jul02.html
The Hindu, Tuesday, Dec 04, 2001

A child inspects, feels, smells and destroys toys with innocent curiosity. This unorganised scientific curiosity of a child has to be nurtured and organised by our education system. On the contrary, our present system kills this curiosity on the first day at school, by feeding information from outside about the outer world and continues to do so until the end of higher education. It is only an exceptional student who tries to unlearn what was learnt at school and college, and appropriately relearns.

THE GOAL of higher education should be the acquisition of wisdom to transform the young mind to act justly, skilfully and magnanimously under all circumstances of peace and war. Education could also make the learners earn a decent and ethical living. However, the latter should not be education's sole goal at the exclusion of the laudable aim pointed out earlier. Today higher education breeds arrogance of knowledge, in the place of the humility of wisdom. Even the arrogance of knowledge is replaced by pride of information. Tolerance has been replaced by hatred. Time is ripe to replace paternalism in education with partnership for mutual benefit and for the good of society at large.Higher education in India, nay in many parts of the globe, suffers from many ailments, but the most important are that the student curiosity is discouraged and the students are not allowed to study what they want to. Students are not given the necessary infrastructure and support to do just that and are not being protected from many of their teachers who have fossilised notions about their chosen specialties!

This system needs to be changed. The earlier it is done the better for our future generations. There are institutions of higher learning in many countries. There were many in India in the distant past that encouraged true learning and genuine education. Why not regain that lost glory by building such excellent centres again?

Science education seems to be at the crossroads today. Reductionist science, that ruled the world ever since the beginning of the university systems in Europe around the 12th century AD, has been found to be wanting in many areas. Unfortunately, our science education does not seem to have realised this truth even today. We still hang on to the time-honoured concept that "science is measurement and measurement is science". Science need not be only hypothesis refutation. There is much more to science than that. One must bear in mind that scientific methods are only one of the many routes to human wisdom. Science is not the only route.

Sea changes have overtaken conventional science teaching. Science is change; anything that does not change cannot be science. (The etymological root of science has to be changed from the Greek, sciere-knowledge to the present root skei-to cut into.) Curiosity with logical scepticism is the root of all discovery. If one properly organises one's curiosity, the resulting organised curiosity with logical scepticism becomes the other name for scientific research.

One sees the unorganised curiosity in every innocent child with normal development. A child inspects, feels, smells and destroys toys with innocent curiosity. This unorganised scientific curiosity of a child has to be nurtured and organised by our education system. On the contrary, our present system kills this curiosity on the first day at school, by feeding information from outside about the outer world and continues to do so until the end of higher education. It is only an exceptional student who tries to unlearn what was learnt at school and college, and appropriately relearns.

Today, education, science education at that, is only replication. Knowledge does not progress by repeating known facts; it could do so only by refuting false dogmas. There are innumerable myths in science that needs to be demolished forthwith! One quick example would exemplify the above statements. Friday, the 13th is an inauspicious day for most Christians. Scientists, naturally, think it is only a superstition. Another example is the study that would baffle the rationalist is published in the most prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine from the U.S. This study prospectively studies two comparable groups of patients admitted with a heart attack to a university hospital of nearly 5000 patients. Without the patient's knowledge and the treating cardiologists' knowledge, one half of them was prayed for at a distance (intercessory prayer). All other treatment and interventions remained the same for both the groups as the doctor were blinded as also the patients (double blind study). The prayed for group at the end of five years had all coronary care unit scores significantly reduced compared to the not prayed for group. That included death and disability as also going back to the original employment after recovery. On an average, the prayed for group stayed for a shorter time in the hospital, and the conclusion of the study was that intercessory prayer did help patients after a heart attack! I am sure our reductionist scientists would become sad after reading this! This is precisely why wrote that human wisdom does not get confined to the five senses only, as is presumed by reductionist scientists.

The good news is that the new science of "holism", called the science of CHAOS, would chalk out new paradigms in science for the future predictions. Quantum physics has been changing for the better for a long time now. The trend took a turn after the "Uncertainty Principle" of Werner Heisenberg and the new concepts of Ervin Schrodinger and others in that field.

"In the 20th Century, however, physics has gone through several conceptual revolutions that clearly reveal the limitations of the mechanistic world view and lead to an organic, ecological view of the world, which shows great similarities to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions. The Universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of multitude of separate objects, but appears as a harmonious indivisible whole; a network of dynamic relations that include the human observer and the human consciousness in an essential way", wrote Fritjoff Capra in his celebrated book "The Turning Point."

He further went on to say that "the Cartesian view of nature was further extended to living organisms, which were regarded as machines constructed from separate parts... The contributions of such founding fathers of science as Francis Bacon, William Harvey, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and Issac Newton must be re-evaluated... The idea of life as an ongoing struggle for existence, which both Karl Marx and Darwin owed to the economist Thomas Malthus, was vigorously promoted in the nineteenth century by the social Darwinists... overlooking the fact that all struggle in nature takes place within the wider context of co-operation."
How true! Medicine and other sciences should have taken this lead and changed their attitude taking into consideration the all-important human consciousness (the mind). If one does that, one quickly realises that science comes closer to eastern mysticism than any other view of man's existence on this planet. Recently, many important studies did reveal the fact that it is the human mind that is at the root of all human illnesses, and keeping the mind tranquil is the best preventive strategy. In short, it is not what you eat that kills you; it is what eats you that kills you.

This is where the science of astrology comes to fore. People get mad when astrology is referred to as a science. Many of these people feel that science is their personal property and any intrusion from sources inimical to them should not come into the fold of science. This is the greatest blow to science. As mentioned above, science is just curiosity and organised scepticism. Let us measure astrology by these yardsticks. The objections to astrology are mainly the following.

Future predictions cannot come right in any field, be it physics, astrology or medicine. To be able to predict the future we should have all the details of the initial state of the organism. If a doctor has to predict the future of his patient the doctor should know the patients physical state, mental state and also them genome and response to the different celestial bodies. All these are unattainable with our present state of knowledge. We have, of course, been predicting the unpredictable.
With all the supercomputers, weather predictions of short duration rarely come right. Edward Laurenz himself propounded the "butterfly effect" to get round this problem. We are where we were. Before rationalism and reductionist science coming on the scene, we were all Pascalanians, believing in the Law of Probabilities. In reality, it is only probabilities that matter in future predictions.
Let us not, therefore, blame astrology alone!

Sun and Moon are not planets: So what? We are not dealing with planetology. We are dealing with astrology. The latter deals with astrol (a heavenly body regarded as exerting influence on mankind and events-Webster's Dictionary) where sun and moon also are included. In fact, sun was a planet in the olden days (Gr. Planetes = wanderer. Webster). By another meaning the moon also becomes a planet (Any one of the heavenly bodies revolving about the sun and shining by its light-Webster). Astrology does not deal with planets but with gruhas (astrol).

Raahu and Ketu do not exist; Similarly, the North Pole and South Pole do not exist on the planet, but they are mathematical reference points. Similarly Raahu and Ketu are reference points where, when a particular Gruha (astrol) reaches the effects on mankind and events are specific and defined. They are reference points for calculations only and are not planets in the true sense of the word.

People born at the same time do not have similar time evolution: Time evolution in any dynamic system, as stated above, depends on the total initial knowledge of the organism and as such even if one is born at the same time and has similar astrological charts their future might not be identical as their consciousness agreement with the laws of nature. Imponderables being what they are, future prediction (Achilles heal of astrology) need not come true! Celestial bodies do not have any effect on the human system. This is a statement made by the so-called scientists who do not seem to know their science well.

Many studies have shown the significant effect of the moon on the human system to give only one example. Lunatic as a word denotes the knowledge of even our forefathers about the role played by moon's phases on the mental attitude of psychiatric patients. While the moon's gravitational pull could displace billions of tons of water in the oceans producing high and low tides to say that the same moon does not have any effect on the human body, made up of water to the extent of nearly 80 per cent, looks ridiculous. Scientific studies have shown how elective surgery done during the full moon day vis-à-vis new moon day has significant difference in blood loss. So many such studies could be cited.

Charlatans misuse astrology and dupe the gullible public: Are there no charlatans in main line science? Fraud in scientific research is rampant. A recent estimate in medical literature threw up the possibility that majority of published data could be fake! Only those who are inside science circles know how faking is done and how fakes get even awards and prizes-or is it that they get it many more times compared to the genuine ones! The 1927 Nobel Prize for Medicine went to Wagner Juregg, who later was found to be a cheat! Why make an exception of astrology. As long as there are dishonest people in society there will be their share in every walk of life — astrology included.

If one were to analyse the recent horrible human tragedies in the U.S. one would come up with the following conclusions. Our rational and scientific education has brought out bright engineers and scientists who have been able to build airplanes and skyscrapers using linear mathematics and the Laws of Deterministic Predictability, but had not imparted the proper education of co-operation in human existence. All are aware of the Darwin's theory of "the survival of the fittest" and also about the "socialistic" norm of struggle for existence. These are the things taught in mainstream education. The trend is also to oppose spirituality in education as poisonous. But actually spirituality is sharing and caring and that has nothing to do with religion. If only we had inculcated the values of sharing and caring, the human tragedies that overtake us in the modern times can be avoided.

Education must inculcate human qualities of head and heart making the students human and humane. The present Macaulay style education only teaches competition and not co-operation. Both Darwin and the socialists took their lessons from Thomas Malthus, the economist, who taught struggle as the basis to come up in life. Little did the Malthusians realise that all struggle originates in co-operation! Our social Darwinists should realise this fact and the earlier they did so the better. Now that the big brother, America, is flexing its muscles, the results could be further sorrow to the innocent people of the world. Only love will win a war and not hate. This is true education.

At least now our die hard social Darwinists would agree that education should include spirituality in it. One of our education ministers in the past, Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad, in his letter to the then powers-that-be did urge the need for spirituality in education. He warned that "if we do not do that, fanatics in each religion will teach and interpret their religion in a dangerous way, making life miserable for people. It is only when one understands his/her religion well does he/she love all other religions. The need, therefore, is to teach spirituality and not religion in schools and colleges in addition to the three Rs." (India's Moulana ICCR publication, edited by Veena Sikri)

Darwin's theories have been found wanting now. There are certain species that alter the features of their offspring in the womb to withstand dangers in future life. A variety of lizard, when pregnant, on smelling an enemy snake, changes the smell organ of its foetus in such a way that the new born would be able to smell a snake at ten times the distance the mother could do. So many such instances could be given. This goes against the very foundation of the survival of fittest theory.

The mother, who is ill fed during the first trimester of pregnancy, delivers a baby that has poorly built heart, blood vessels and pancreas. Such a child has a greater risk of heart attacks, high blood pressure and diabetes at an early age. This also
goes against Darwinism. Many more examples could be given. But the establishment wants to sell Darwinism at any cost. There is a department of "Science Communication" in Oxford that does just that. One has only to read the book, The Blind Watch Maker by Richard Dawkins, the head of that department, to know how they bend over backwards to sell science in its present avatar. It is sad that our gurus do not want to know the truth!

Scientists and pseudo-scientists should note that science has not found its Holy Grail and is not drinking from it. It is far from it. The growing weight of specialisation and sub-specialisation is slowly disintegrating the present science of reductionism. We need to have a holistic view of the Universe for the future good of mankind that takes into account all aspects of life, including economics, sociology, the environment and spirituality. It is the coming together of all these that would make this world tranquil — the dire need of the hour in place of another world war.

Closure of Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) comes in for Close Scrutiny The recent decision of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to discontinue the well known and nationally acclaimed Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) in its home district of Hoshangabad recently came in for close scrutiny at a meeting of the Education Discussion Group in New Delhi. The HSTP has been a thirty year long effort to innovate science teaching in upper primary classes (Classes 6 to 8) in normal rural and urban schools which are the main providers of formal education for a majority of our children. This is the only programme in the entire country wherein the children conduct experiments with their own hands and learn scientific concepts through observation and analysis of their findings. A collaborative effort of the State Education Department and a voluntary NGO, Eklavya, the programme has involved a large number of scientists and academicians from the best of universities and research institutions of the country. One of the most successful models of improving the quality of science education in our schools, the programme, involving over 2000 teachers, presently benefits over a lakh of children every year spread over 1000 schools in 15 districts of Madhya Pradesh. It has been awarded many prestigious awards including the Jamnalal Bajaj Award (1980) and Jawaharlal Nehru Award of the Indian Science Congress of 1999 The Expert Committee appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in 1991 had strongly recom-mended expanding the programme to the entire State of Madhya Pradesh and develop it as a model for the entire nation to emulate Digvijay Singh, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, announced on the floor of the State Assembly on March 5, 2002 that the State Government was evaluating the positive features of the Hoshangabad programme to implement it in the entire State.

In this background the order of July 3, 2002 of the Secretary, Elementary Education of Madhya Pradesh MAIN STREAM 27 JUL 2002 effectively closing down the programme in Hoshanga-bad district has come as a shock to the larger scientific and academic community across the country and abroad which has looked upon the programme as a beacon of hope and an effective platform to contribute their mite to improving the quality of education for our children. A programme contributing at a very fundamental level towards the constitutional goal of promoting scientific temper in our society has been throttled in a most irrational manner. In a similar manner, the innovative Social Science Teaching Programme being developed and implemented by Eklavya in eight selected schools has been discontinued by default without a proper review or Planning for its development. AT its meeting on July 18, 2002, the Education Discussion Group passed the following resolution:
(i) The Group is shocked and dismayed at the hasty decision of the Madhya Pradesh Government to discontinue the curriculum developed under the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP). This act has cast serious doubts on the commitment of the State Government to initiate a Statewide programme of improving the quality of science education. (ii) The Group calls upon Digvijay Singh, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, to immediately withdraw the order of the Secretary of Elementary Education of July 3, 2002.
(iii) In the light of his declaration on the floor of the State Assembly on March 5, 2002 the group urges him to set up a high-level expert committee of well-known scientists and educationists to review the positive features of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme and propose an action plan for a State-level endeavour to improve the quality of science education. This process be carried out within a fixed time-limit and the HSTP should continue in the district of Hoshangabad till the committee gives its recommendations. The committee should also be asked to suggest the future development of the HSTP as part of a larger State-level plan. All this should be carried out under the advice of the newly-constituted State Advisory Board of Education.
(iv)The Group also expressed deep concern for the students of Classes 8 and 7 of Hoshangabad district who are being forced to adapt to text-book based rote-learning of science after enjoying the benefits of activity-based discovery-oriented teaching of science. The children of Class 8 will have to face a Board Examination at the end of this year in a system they
are totally unfamiliar with. This is unheard of in the history of curriculum change. All curriculum changes in Upper Primary Schools are initiated from Class 6 and implemented in successive years in the following classes. Even the NCERT follows this norm. This complete insensitivity to the plight of the children and the teachers is evidence of the arbitrary and bureaucratic nature of the order; if nothing else, for this very reason, the order should be withdrawn immediately.
v) The Group similarly calls upon the Chief Minister to issue a fresh order for the continuation of the Social Science Teaching Programme being implemented by Eklavya in eight experimental schools in Dewas, Harda and Hoshangabad districts under the aegis of the State Council for Educational Research and Training. Further, with the aid of the State Advisory Board of Education, a process be set up through which Eklavya's proposal to up-scale the programme can be examined.
vi) The Group further expresses deep concern at the process operating behind the 'assessment report' circulated by the Secretary to the Chief Minister, R. Gopalakrishnan. The report is an attempt to prove preconceived notions and prejudices in a totally unscientific and motivated manner. The lack of professional competence in preparing the report makes it disturbing that such irresponsible acts should form the basis of decisions of far-reaching consequences affecting the children's future.
vii) The Group is surprised to note that the above report tries to label all such interventions for educational reform, emulated by other States too, as illegitimate. This seeks to destroy the fabric of public critique and the capacity to develop and innovate within our own conditions. At a time when the decisions of the NCERT are being seriously questioned by the academic community, such a viewpoint only implies that alternatives have no space and that state institutions can decide without reference to the academic community The Group calls for wideranging condemnation of such a perspective that seeks to throttle and control civic society initiative. The meeting was held on July 18, 2002 at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi and chaired by Prof Sumit Sarkar, Professor of History at Delhi University. It was attended by many senior professors, teachers and students from the faculties of science, social science and education from leading institutions of Delhi including Prof P.K. Srivastava (Director, Centre for Science Education and Communication, Delhi University), Prof Vijaya Varma (Professor of Physics and Director, Computer Centre, Delhi University), Prof N. Panchapakesan and Prof Amitabh Mukherjee, both Professors of Physics at Delhi University, Prof R.K. Agnihotri (Professor of Linguistics, Delhi University), Prof Nargis Panchapakesan and Prof Anil Sadgopal, both former Deans, Faculty of Education, Delhi University, Prof Harbans Mukhia (Professor of History, JNU), Prof A.S. Narang (Professor of Political Science, IGNOU), Dr Uma Chakravarti, well-known historian ED1 SCIENCE EDUCATION AND HSTP

- Closure of Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) comes in for Close Scrutiny, Mainstream, 27/07/2002, /eldoc/n22_/27jul02mns1.pdf

'Frogs off CBSE
dissection table
New Delhi, May 20 (PTI): Frogs, rats and earthworms will no longer face the scalpel in school laboratories for biological tests. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has deleted all such tests from their Senior School curriculum.
In a circular to the heads of the board-affiliated institutions, it has been notified that all experi-ments relating to animals in Biol-ogy practicals have been deleted. "Hence, no questions related to the dissection of animals will be asked in the practical examina-tions in Biology from March 2002 onwards," the circular said. Stu-dents will, instead, perform alter-native experiments prescribed in the syllabus. CBSE director (academics) G. Balasubramanian said the deci-sion was an outcome of a three-year- process during which the proposal was examined by a group of experts on the subject. The syllabus suggests seven al-ternative activities to the students and a large number of schools ha-ve already gone for the option, sa-id Balasubramanian. Students wi-ll not lose anything by not dissect-ing animals as the alternative ac-tivities provide exactly the same psychomotor skills, he added. . "Utmost efforts have been ma-de to make the alternatives as close as possible to the dissection of real animals," Balasubramanian said. "Dissection of plants and seeds in-volve the same technique as in ani-mals" the CBSE director said.
Animal rights groups, which have been campaigning for deletion of dissection from the school curriculum, welcomed the move. "It was of no use to anybody. It won't affect any student," said Gautam Grover of People For Ani-mal. A small percentage of stu-dents take up medicine and it is al-ready banned abroad, he justified. The view is also shared by so-me
school principals. "Students are not going to lose much" due to the decision, said Father Carwallo, principal of Father Agnel School. He, however, criticised the CBSE move of notifying it, saying it amounted to interference. "Stu-dents choose Biology as subject on their own and there is no logic in the CBSE decision," he said. "There is too much interference in the lives of people," he added. Biology teachers differ from the board's prescription. "Simulation or alternate ways are not going to serve the purpose. Unless a student performs the dis-section with own hands and feels it, he won't have complete knowl-edge," said a teacher. Balasubramanian, however, believes technology has changed a lot and one can learn about the physiology of animals without ac-tually dissecting them.
ED1 SCIENCE EDUCATION

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had recommend-ed in 1991 the expansion of the pro-gramme to the entire State from its present operation in 1,000 schools in 15 districts. However, on July 3 the axe fell on the pro-gramme. This has come in for allround criticism. Members of the scientific and academic community in the country and abroad have appealed to Digvijay Singh, through signature campaigns, petitions and individual letters, to reverse the order. "The decision and the order smacks of high-handedness," said M.G.K. Menon, former Union Minister for Science and Technology, who had been closely associ-ated with the programme in its early days. "To stop educational programmes, involv-ing practical scientific demonstrations, of the nature that I know are carried out in the Hoshangabad programme, in my view is entirely wrong." he said in a letter. "Allowing HSTP to be killed would be a tremendous loss to Madhya Pradesh and the country," said Yash Pal, the physicist and former Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), in his letter to the Chief Minister. "Such efforts come only once or twice in a century," he observed.
"Decentralised governance" is the catchword today for many of the actions of the Madhya Pradesh government. The facade of that same premise has been used to put an end to years of dedicated work by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Eklavya that conducted the pro-gramme in the State-run rural schools. The sequence of events that led up to the closure would suggest that the Chief Minister himself may have been misled and not have been fully made aware of the game plan. In the end, however, he found it con-venient to play along.

I really liked the lit-mus test," said Rajesh. "I enjoy the world of animals, in particular the life-cycles of frogs, or mosquitoes," said Narmadi. "It is nice to see plants grow," said Suren Singh. All these students of Class VIII from the government middle school at Rani Pipariya village, 70 km from Hoshangabad, seemed excited about their science class and the things they did. The Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) or Hoshangabad Vi-gyan, introduced in the district in 1978 in government schools, for the first time used a universally acknowledged peda-gogical approach to the teaching of sci-ence. The guided discovery-based approach used experiments performed by students to generate knowledge. It changed the traditional architecture of the classroom from rows of children lis-tening to a lecture to small groups inter-acting with each other while performing experiments. Instead of memorising a body of knowledge, students discussed their observations, leading to a concep-tual understanding of scientific princi-ples. Children are encouraged to conduct experiments and find their own answers — there are no guidebooks or question papers with readymade an-swers. Examinations are conducted with open books and children do not know how many marks they will get for each question.

Pradeep Sharma, a teacher in Pipariya who has interviewed 900 students for a comparative study of HSTP and non-HSTP students (for his Ph.D thesis) found that students who studied the new curriculum were eager, active and engaged teachers in dialogue. They had keen observation and reasoning powers, apart from good analytical abilities. However, HSTP faces closure in a State which advertises itself as moving to "redefining the paradigm of democra-cy", while it targets adivasis and orga-nisations working with them. Though the BJP has been making noises about the programme since long, for the first time it found an ally in the government. In February, the Hoshangabad district planning committee (DPC) recom-mended to the State government that the programme be discontinued. The BJP MLA from Itarsi, Dr. Sitasharan Sharma, in a letter to the district collec-tor, on December 27, 2001, said HSTP has no linkages with the earlier and post 6-8 class curriculum. The students had to conduct experiments and also collect a number of leaves due to which they are greatly inconvenienced. "If it is such a good programme, why has it, not spread to other districts?" Dr. Sharma asked. "HSTP had ruined the careers of many children. They are brainwashing our stu-dents," he proclaimed.

The programme was last sought to be banned by the Sunderlal Patwa govern-ment in 1992. It had even appointed the Mishra committee to evaluate HSTP but the government fell and the orders were not implemented. The Mishra commit-tee report was not even made public. HSTP is a comprehensive science curri-culum package for classes six to eight. A story retold The Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme — a discovery-based approach that enables students to learn from experiments conducted in the classroom — is on its way out MEENA MENON writes on why, in spite of differing views, the programme should be revived. The reason for the slow spread of education programmes in rural areas is a point to ponder over.
The draft programme was developed in 1972 by academics and scientists from premier institutions such as the Tata In-stitute of Fundamental Research and the Indian Institutes of Technology, among others, apart from activists and academ-icians of two NGOs, Kishore Bharati and Friends Rural Centre. The Madhya Pradesh government al-lowed the two NGOs to test the pro-gramme in 16 middle schools in two blocks of Hoshangabad district in 1972 which continued till 1977. In 1978, the government extended the programme to cover all 250 middle schools in Hoshan-gabad district. In 1982 Eklavya, an NGO, which is now looking after the pro-gramme, was set up to work with the Madhya Pradesh government and its educational agencies, including the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and the District Institutes of Education and Training. It extended HSTP to school complexes in 13 districts of the State. The programme covers about 1,000 schools with around 2,500 science teachers and covers over 1,00,000 chil-dren every year. About 550 schools in Hoshangabad and 250 in Harda district (formerly part of Hoshangabad district) are covered by this programme. The real reason for] Dr. Sharma's opposition to HSTP was soon apparent. "Eklavya has influential backing and they have a po-litical ideology behind the programme. Education is just a front. Most of the Ek-lavya activists are members of a political party. They are not content with science; now they have ventured into social sci-ence," he said. "The social science text-books (also from class 6 to 8) say that cows were slaughtered for the Rajsuya yagna; Muslims were traders was Mahmoud Ghazni a trader — and the Aryans were outsiders. What is the source for all this?" he asked. Eklavya's social science curriculum was introduced since 1986. Eklavya has since clarified all these points.

Chief minister Digvijay Singh made a state-ment in the Assembly on March 5, 2002, that HSTP was repeatedly evaluated and the results were not good. However, he said that the good points of the pro-gramme must be integrated State-wide along with its strong teachers' training aspect. M.L. Patel, a science teacher, at Rani Pipariya school, started his career in 1978, the same year HSTP was intro-duced in all schools in Hoshangabad district. "The initial response to the pro-gramme was enthusiastic. In traditional science curriculum, we had no experi-ments — so this was a novel idea for us teachers as well," he said. The relation-ship between students and teachers also changed. "Students were more open with us, they learn to articulate better and they learnt simple everyday things," he added. The decision to end HSTP was taken in a most undemocratic fashion, according to Rajesh Khindri of Eklavya. On January 28, 2002, the issue was tak-en up in the education sub-committee of the District Planning Committee (DPC). The district education office had prepared a brief outlining the main achievements of the programme and sent it to the DPC. The DPC meets every month and in the meeting on February 7, neither the minutes of the education sub-committee meeting nor the brief prepared by the education department was presented to other members, he said. The real grouse seems to be our social science programme, he added.

Mr. Khindri who was invited for the meeting, said the Eklavya members hardly spoke when the (former) minister in charge of the district and DPC chair-person, Ajay Narayan Mushran, said it was a unanimous decision to end the programme. "Puri sadan ko lagta hai ki-karyakram nahi chahiye", he reportedly said. Dr. Sharma has been raising this mat-ter repeatedly since he was elected to the Assembly in 1990. It was anything but a unanimous decision, said Mr. Khindri. However, now eight of the DPC mem-bers have sent letters asking for a review of the decision. The Collector of Hosh- A story... angabad, Mr. Ashish Upadhyay, who is member secretary of the DPC, said contrary to popular be-lief, the DPC did take a unanimous decision and Eklavya was also given a proper hearing. The education department note was circulated and discussed as well. He said HSTP was not implemented in all districts and students going out of Hoshangabad faced a problem. Secondly, the examination sys-tem is not familiar to children. They do not know how many marks they will get for the questions they are answering. It is like a lottery, he added. "HSTP has been in place for 30 years; how long can we go on experimenting?" he asked. "Why should Hoshangabad be a guinea pig for this programme? Let the lo-cal people decide what they want. DPC is a constitutionally elected body, once it has decided, people should abide by it," he added. The much-awaited DPC meeting which was to review the decision on HSTP, was finally held on May 9, 2002, under the leadership of the new minister-in-charge of Hoshan-gabad district, Shri Harvansh Singh. It was decided that status quo will be maintained as far as the ear-lier decision to close down HSTP is concerned. In view of the fact that a review process regarding HSTP is under way by the State government at the behest of Mr. Digvijay Singh, the final decision regarding the continuation of HSTP within the district has been left to the Chief Minister. However, Eklavya and the persons concerned will be given a chance to present their case. An evaluation committee set up by the ministry of Human Re-sources Development in 1991, said the programme was based on sound pedagogical principles and the State must accept these princi-ples for science education in all lev-els of school education. It also recommended an evaluation of the impact on students, expansion of HSTP in a phased manner to the whole State, preparation of a prop-er syllabus and revision of the cur-riculum to make it more meaningful. Eklavya did prepare a phase — wise introduction of the programme to other districts but the government was preoccupied with the district primary education programme (DPEP) and did not take it up. In fact, said an Eklavya member, the government wanted to focus on middle school educa-tion from last year but it felt there was a lack of expertise to extend the HSTP to all districts. The Harda
DPC had also decided against HSTP but later revised its recommenda-tion last year. HSTP has won sever-al awards and many schools in other parts of the country also use the textbooks. The Hoshangabad district machinery has an elaborate system in place for HSTP. Each block has a Sangam Kendra or a re-source group of trained teachers that meets once a month to discuss issues related to HSTP. Government sources said that trained teachers were a must for the programme and with the prolif-eration of private schools, and the high turnover of teachers, this was difficult. Two to three hundred teachers are trained every year and funds for training did not come last year. Teachers and students have launched a signature campaign against the DPC's decision and felt it was undemocratic to stop an in-novative curriculum. In a State that is proud of its rad-ical governance, surely their voices must be heard.. ED1 Government schools Science education and HSTP

The sharpness of the demarcating lines is all the more important in such critical areas as the question of communalising education.

ONE IMPORTANT offshoot of the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s around the world and in India was a considerable experimentation in the area of education at all levels. In India, experimenting with a different mode of imparting education at the
highest level resulted in the establishment of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1969; it started functioning in 1971 with the
appointment of faculty and the admission of the first batch of students next year.

If JNU attracted a lot of media attention for a whole spectrum of reasons, another, humbler but extremely significant experiment was being tried out in a small town of Madhya Pradesh around the same time. A group of highly motivated scholars, young and not so young, were restless with the way they had learnt science in their schools and later at the university; the whole mode of teaching science to children should be turned upside down, they felt. Instead of being a quest, the method of teaching science in class killed all the excitement of the pursuit of knowledge which explains the mysteries of life to children. The class teacher, following the textbook, proceeds from the abstract to the concrete, expatiates upon a concept, say, of gravity, to sixth class and then illustrates it with examples. Unable to grasp the abstract concept, the child is also unable to link the concrete with it. She thus learns both by rote. Rare would be the child who would rather remain in such a class than run out if it.

The group of scholars, like the Mahabharata lad Eklavya, whose name they were later to adopt for their organisation, opted to
pursue their search in near wilderness, away from the glare and distractions of a metropolis and settled down in the small town
of Hoshangabad on the banks of the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. There they set out to get the children to generate
knowledge for themselves by putting the textbook aside for the moment and going out in the neighbourhood, looking for special kinds of tree leaves, stones, what not and then asking questions and seeking answers. The questions led them to concepts, and the search for answers to the scientific methods of observation, experimentation, analysis and generalisation. They were to be trained in the critical method of acquiring knowledge rather than in the passive acceptance of knowledge generated by teachers; this would stand them in good stead and well prepared to leave behind knowledge that had fallen out of place with the advancement of science. In life too they would learn the application of reason.

There was also another valuable principle implied in it. In the great energy and resources expended in the pursuit of education
for the next generation, the poor should not have to satisfy their quest with second rate, leftover education: what their children
get too should be good and worthwhile.

The group started working in 1972 under the rather prosaic name of Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP), until ten years later when it acquired the present very evocative name. The idea attracted a large number of scientists, some of them as eminent as M.S. Swaminathan, M.G.K. Menon, Yash Pal, and many others teaching in the University of Delhi, who involved themselves in the development of the programme at some stage or the other, in one form or another. The HSTP and later Eklavya sought to develop the programme well within the framework of the system of school education in Madhya Pradesh and with the approval, cooperation and assistance of successive Governments of the State at costs that were almost ridiculously low. As they went along, they developed expertise in writing new kinds of textbooks, training teachers through short term refresher courses, publishing magazines for children and for teachers, and devising tool kits at a fraction of prevailing costs. In course of time, a social science component was also developed based upon the same principle of proceeding from the familiar to the abstract rather than the other way around. By 2001, the HSTP was operative in 1000 schools in 15 districts and 100,000 children were its beneficiaries. The best testimony to its success has been the excitement and joy the process of
learning has brought to the children over the past three decades.

Education that inculcates critical faculty and reasoning is by its very nature secular education. Understandably then the one-term BJP Government led by Sundar Lal Patwa was dead set against continuing to allow any space and assistance to Eklavya and initiated steps to pack it off. The Government had the solid backing of the BJP-affiliates in the community of school teachers. Fortunately for Eklavya, the Government lost the election in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Congress Government under Digvijay Singh has remained ensconced since then. Eklavya could thus heave a sigh of relief.

Not for long, though. For, keen as the Congress, at the central and the State levels, is to project itself as an alternative to the BJP's politics of hatred, obscurantism and communalism, it is not immune to the BJP's politics of manipulation from the outside.
At one meeting of the Hoshangabad District Planning Committee, the local BJP MLA (a special invitee and therefore not even
a member) quite casually suggested that the programme be dropped; and the meeting, chaired by the Finance Minister, a Congressman, agreed to it without any further ado. This is without reference to the very high-powered State Advisory Board
on Education, which includes some of the country's most distinguished names, constituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government very recently. Within days, nine of twelve members of the Committee sought a review of the decision in writing, but this too has not been conceded. Eklavya's thumb was chopped off a second time and with the same ruthlessness. Understandably, the first to congratulate the Government on this bold step was the ABVP. The bureaucracy which had all these years extendedappreciation and support to the programme suddenly issued swift office orders announcing the termination of the science teaching programme; clearly the social science teaching component would be next on the block and not too long from now. Allthis is within the knowledge of the Chief Minister and presumably with his approval.

In a scenario where the BJP and the Congress are fast emerging as the political alternatives, the sharpness of the demarcating
lines is all the more important in such critical areas as the question of communalising education. While the BJP makes no bones
about saffronising the minds of Indian children from the word go as its objective, the blurring of the demarcating lines between it and the Congress is tantamount to the cause being already lost. The Congress has already lost a lot of its secular ground by its passivity in Gujarat. Are we really witnessing the saffronisation of the Congress?

EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
Curriculum / Priya Shah
The Road Not Taken
The authors of our science curriculum express a criminal conceit that nature is to be entirely harnessed for human purposes. Attempts to incorporate a more holistic world-view in schools can no longer remain the effort of a small minority. The Indian ideal of progress has been fashioned after the western world-view of technological development. From Pandit Nehru to the present gov-ernment, our planners have viewed large-scale application of technology as the ultimate goal. Our national policy-makers continue to pursue the target of 'devel-opment at all costs.' Regardless of the fact that, in the pursuit of economic develop-ment, the developed nations have all but exhausted their natural resources. They have cut down their natural forest cover or replaced it with fast-growing monocultures that destroy the soil, polluted their water and air, destroyed the habitat of thousands of species, contributed to global warming and begun to destroy the ozone layer.

The modernistic world-view has so far prevented us from understanding our re-lationship with the world we live in and adapting to it to ensure our survival. Al-though the quest for scientific knowledge is not in itself detrimental to the environ-ment, humankind has used that knowl-edge to control nature and exploit our natural resources to the point that it has made our planet less habitable. The irony of it is that by destroying the biosphere's equilibrium it is humankind, not nature, that will cease to exist. As Dr. Chitra Natarajan of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education puts it," Nature will find its balance. It is up to us to decide whether or not we want to be part of that balance." Our modern view of the world is adopted from the idea that all benefits enjoyed by humankind are derived from the man-made world which is the prod-uct of science, technology industry and economic development. The immeasur-able benefits provided by the normal func-tioning of the biosphere- such as a favourable and stable climate, fertile soil and fresh water, which are indispensable for life on this planet- are totally ignored and are assigned no value of any kind.

The world-view of modernism also re- quires that in order to maximise all ben-efits, we must maximise and venerate economic development. Scientists and academics, like most people, accept this world-view as normal because it rationalises the policies that produced the world in which they, and indeed all of us, have been brought up. It simply does not occur to them that what they take to be normal is in reality very atypical, considering humanity's short-lived and aberrant experience on this planet. For instance, our agricultural sci-ence is based on the assumption that large-scale, mechanised, chemical-based agriculture (which rapidly transforms arable land into desert) is normal. It is blasphemous to suggest that mod-ern methods of "progress" might not be entirely beneficial. To show that the modernisation of agriculture in the Third World is the main cause of malnutrition and famine in those countries; or that modern medicine has failed to prevent an increase in the global incidence of just about every disease except for smallpox is unthinkable for mainstream scientists. The general tendency to regard the only world we know, as normal is reflected in the disciplines that are taught in our schools and universities and in the cursory treatment given to ecological prin-ciples in the present science curriculum.

The underlying theme of the science cur-riculum reinforces the tenet of modern-ism, i.e. the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources to meet humankind's ever-growing demands for food and com-fort. The authors allude that for an object or a process to be of interest to science, it must be of some use to humankind. This attitude does nothing to instill in impres-sionable minds, an appreciation of the collective importance of all lifeforms and natural processes towards the preserva-tion of life. The idea that an object's 'use-fulness' to humankind is a measure of its value is reiterated throughout the cur-riculum, whether in reference to plants, animals, micro-organisms or even min-erals. Those who frame the syllabus make little attempt to depict the role of an ob-ject as more than a commodity devised for the sole purpose of fulfilling man's needs, or to decipher its role in the scheme A different kind of science lesson.

Even when attempted, it is often confined to a single chapter. Presumably, the writers believe that the parts of the whole, i.e. the plants, ani-mals and other organisms, can somehow be considered in isolation to the whole, or the biosphere. For instance, while dis-cussing the uses of plants for food, medi-cine and other human requirements, the writers make no mention of their contri-bution towards the establishment and preservation of life as we know it, their vital function as the 'lungs of the earth'
or in providing a habitat for millions of species. The curriculum, in elucidating scien-tific principles, conforms to science's re-ductionistic and mechanistic paradigm without accommodating the Gaian assumption that the world is a living entity rather
than a dead and machine-like system. It serves only to in-tensify the compartmentalisation of knowledge that has made it possible for science to view life processes in isolation, appar-ently subject to laws of their own. However, the biosphere and the laws of Nature do not conform to the arbitrary and artificial divisions into which knowledge has been divided. There is no doubt that it is the isolationist, laboratory method of science that has contributed to its success in elucidating the workings of the natural world. Nevertheless, there is a degree to which we can narrow our focus without losing sight of the big picture. The present range of academic knowledge is forced to fit an atomised and mechanistic world in which people are no more than ma-chines, their needs purely material and technological. This lends itself to the con-struction of totally aberrant theories. It
ignores the complexity of the natural world and the delicate and vulnerable as-sociations that interconnect all natural processes.
The present science curriculum reflects this ignorance. There are few references, often amounting to little more than a footnote, about the vast and complex in-teractions in the biosphere and their im-portance towards the creation and nur-turing of life as we know it. Even these are usually referred to only when explain-ing the effect of human activity on the environment. The writers make no at-tempt to impart a respect for the envi-ronment or for the living creatures with whom we share our environment and on whom we depend for our existence. The curriculum also fails to incorporate many well-established facts, such as the dangers of pesticides to human and animal life, and the fact that, as yet, there exists no safe and satisfactory method of gar-bage disposal. It also informs us that cut-ting down trees is fine as long as we plant more trees, preferably fast-growing va-rieties for energy plantations, in their place. It clearly ignores the effects of loss of habitat and biodiversity caused by monocultures and plantations.

The cur-riculum also stresses the importance of using animals for medical research as "subjects to test the efficacy of new medi-cines." In failing to mention the humane al-ternatives to animal experimentation, and in asserting the fallacy that humans are the "only thinking creatures", the edu-The "environment" is an all-encom-passing term whose dimensions are explored in school from various angles, with inputs from languages, history, geography, civics, physics, chemistry and biology. The goal of imparting such knowledge is to enable the learner to see issues as well as ideas in an inte-grated way, to understand a part as essentially undivorced from the whole. cationists reveal a lack of respect for other forms of life and an ignorance of estab-lished scientific facts. For too long we have tried to rationalise our unsustainable practices by accommo-dating our values to fit our lifestyle; by accepting that progress as we practise it, is normal. In doing so, we have ignored the ecological imbalance caused by Man's effort to improve his levels of comfort without regard for the burden it puts on he ecosystem. It is time we returned to a value-based system that embraces a ho-listic world-view as its philosophy and adapt our lifestyle to live in harmony with nature and with our fellow crea-tures. The "environment" is an all-encom-passing term whose dimensions are ex-plored in school from various angles, with inputs from languages, history, geogra-phy, civics, physics, chemistry and biology. The goal of imparting such knowl-edge is to enable the learner to see issues as well as ideas in an integrated way to understand a part as essentially undivorced from the whole.

The facts presented, lead to an understanding of an issue or a phenomenon. The context of the facts gives it a meaning, a reality with which a child can identify. Hence, though the content is important, the strategy adopted for imparting education is even more important. The development of a syllabus that in-tegrates a holistic world-view with a re-alistic and problem-solving approach to teaching science is essential. It will enable us to instill in young, receptive minds the ability to work towards solutions logi-cally and construct for themselves an in-tegrated vision of their environment. Parisar Asha, an NGO involved in co-ordinating the Environmental Studies Approach to Learning (ESAL) in several schools in Mumbai, Goa, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra aims to do just this. The organisation's goal is to help replace rote-learning and its atten-dant evils through a reality-oriented, problem-solving ap-proach to learning by using the environment (natural and man-made) as a learning re-source. It also endeavours to focus attention on attitudes and values that grow from the respect for the interdepen-dence between humankind and the environment. Gloria de Souza, director and founder of Parisar Asha, believes that NGOs can play a collaborative role between the policy mak-ers and the schools. Parisar Asha has been active in trying to develop worksheets and learning materials that supplement the information in the text-books of all subjects.

They hope to be able to supplement and reinforce learning methods that are integrated and fruitful and to go beyond the syllabus to provide students with information relevant to their everyday experience. They also endeavour to create non-traditional ma-terial for ecological sensitisation in cer-tain clusters of inner-city schools. As Priti de Souza, a secondary school teacher says, "Children have the desire to learn subjects from a realistic perspective. We have to teach them how academic facts can be pplied to real-life situations." She high-lights the lack of ability in students to integrate concepts of temperature and pressure, as taught in the science curricu-lum, with similar concepts, such as pres-sure belts in geography. The growing concern over the erosion of values in society has emphasised the need for adjustments in the curriculum that allow education to become a tool for the cultivation of social and ethical val-ues. In this context, it is important to de-sign literature for children that imparts values that draw upon our nation's rich cultural heritage, based on a synthesis of Contd. on page 28
HUMANSCAPE • JULY 1996 25

Science education — the distress signal
A PLAINTIVE CONTRAST to the predomi-nant smugness of the academic establishment is perhaps the essence of the message on the status of science education in the country which Prof. C. N. R. Rao, the chairman of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, convey-ed through his convocation address at the Anna University at Madras last Monday How many of the 5,700 colleges are really equipped to im-part science education which can stand scrutiny in the light of standards obtaining in the industrially advanced countries? Even if Prof. Rao's lament about the state of affairs at the undergraduate level has a degree of vehemence out of proportion to the widely perceived dearth of enthusiasm for the pursuit of science, there can hardly be any serious disputation about the utterly inadequate level of science education.

The Kothari Commission warned more than 20 years ago that it was in bad shape and was in danger of sliding further "if we fail to reckon with the explosion of knowledge." It may be there have been attempts from time to time to upgrade the science curricula at the various educational institutions. Yet whether such revision has been characterised more by addition of modern ma-terial than by a mere jettisoning of dead wood is a question which has evaded a genuine and systematic appraisal. The multitude of generali-sations which provided the philosophical plank of the New Educational Policy (NEP) have evi-dently skirted the specific issue of raising the standards of science education to accord both with the explosion of knowledge cutting across the compartmentalised academic disciplines and with the need to incorporate the learning of science as a basic instrumentality in the entire educational process.

Operation Blackboard and vocationalisation of higher secondary education could serve as a catalyst in the process but given the vast backlog and the patent inad-equacy of funding, any optimistic perspective of science education securing a strong foothold even in the urban schools would decidedly be off the mark. Thus the question cannot with any seriousness be posed as to why the disparities in the standards as between the schools in the major cities and those which operate in the rural milieu continue. There is a pronounced lack or any zeal for science studies at the undergraduate stage for all but a negligible minority of students. It could be attributed not only to the status quo approach that most universities seem content to adopt in relation to curriculum strategies but also to the dearth of laboratory facilities (caused both by stringency of financial allocations and by the unexacting nature of the curriculum) and teach-ing methodologies which provide for little of the scientific quest on the part of the students. Then there is the classroom situation ordained by a system of communal reservation which flies in the face of the criterion of student aptitude for particular courses.

While Prof. Rao's assessment of the undergraduate science curricula — the ab-sence of flexibility — has a great deal to do with the long standing academic segregation of the hard sciences from the social sciences, his recipe of two streams in science education — one of a general nature and another clearly ac-centing higher reaches of the sciences with their inter-disciplinarity — appears to be a line worth pursuing. It offers the prospect of the top science students at the undergraduate stage passing on to postgraduate programmes which provide the makings of full fledged careers in science, both experimental and applied. This way the con-spicuous mediocrity of postgraduate science courses could be redeemed somewhat through the process of eliminating applicants who value the M.Sc. degree solely from the point of view of the credential it holds out for public employ-ment. But Prof. C. N. R. Rao does not appear to set much store by the prospects of reform of existing colleges that would transform them as centres of excellence where science studies are concerned. His prescription is that a few model undergraduate science colleges be start-ed in each State to attract students for science in the way the NT's and the Regional Engineering' Colleges have done. Some might place the sug-gestion in the category of antibiotics. Even if it is not just one more antibiotic, there are various implications to be taken into account — in terms of finance, teacher resources of proven compe-tencies and exposure to research, affiliation vis-a- vis autonomy in relation to the universities and a policy of admissions extricated from political and other non-academic impositions. Yet Dr. Rao's recommendations for fortifying science education deserve serious examination, particu-larly his comments on the largely sterile nature of much that passes for research in the university system. But does the UGC care to turn its atten-tion from the multiplicity of its administrative chores to the issues raised by Dr. Rao? Or should other bodies or groups of individuals and institutions be taking up the responsibilities so ividly thrown up?

Science for students and laymen
TUCKED away in a corner of the Delhi station's programmes on March 25 was a talk by Hassan Zia on what the state of science litera-ture in Urdu was, and what efforts had been made in producing it, notably at Delhi College in the Capital over a century ago, and at Jamia-i-Osmania, in Hyderabad since 1917. It was a good broadcast, and since much of what he said applies to Hindi and other Indian languages also, the subject calls for wider attention than it might have received from those who listen to Urdu Majlis. Although the profes-sed aim of the Government, ever since the attainment of independ-ence, has been to improve the teaching of science, its populariza-tion, and the creation of a scientific temper in the people, there is much confusion in the formulation of a national policy, and its implemen-tation at the school, college and higher research levels. Most of the uncertainty is caused by failure to be clear and practical about the language of communica-tion, and the insistence by pedants and purists that translation of tech-nical terms and their publication in learned volumes has higher priori-ty than telling common people about science in simple words which they can understand, and in a manner that satisfies curiosity and generates interest. A.I.R. has established a Science Unit at its headquarters, and Science Cells at several stations, but if one goes by what comes over in Vigyan Taran-gini (Hindi) and Science Nama (Urdu), the effort seems largely wasted. Also needless complica-tion is created by those who want to see English eliminated from Akashvani broadcasts, and science text-books. On the other hand the attitude of those who are certain that science and technology should be pro-pagated in English only is also un- realistic.

The experience of media men as well as school teachers seems to indicate that scientific concepts and basic understanding are best conveyed in the mother tongue of the child, with no restric-tions placed on the employment of such simple English terms and ex-pressions as have passed into com-mon usage. At higher academic levels English should be accepted increasingly without regarding this as an affront to rational pride. It was interesting in this context to hear in Our Guest Tonight (March 24) Professor Gersard Leitner of the Faculty of New Fore-ign Languages, Free University of Berlin (F.R.G.) interviewed compe-tently by Jasjit Man Singh about the former's researches into how the changing pattern of interna-tional politics and trade relations was affecting the relative import-ance given to foreign languages In the non-scientific sector, the very first sentence of the National Programme talk in Hindi : Bharatiya Manisha Ke Ayyam (March 26) left listeners in no doubt that this broadcast was meant only for the highbrowed. This was not the language of radio. The National Programme talk in English (March 27) had five experts discussing the motion: "Traditional theatre today lacks mass appeal. It was discur-sive, and meandered somewhat disjointedly around the theme. The best broadcast of the week, in this critic's view, was the beauti-fully acted, well-produced play: Karma Naasha Ki Haar (March 26) adapted successfully for the radio by Avadh Behari Lai from Dr Shiv Prasad Singh's moving story about a poor child-widow, who incurs the wrath of caste-ridden and super-stitious villagers by giving birth out of wedlock. In a dramatic and very human surprise ending, the erring young man's father accepts, the unlucky girl as his daughter-in-law, and silences the angry crowded by asking who among them had never sinned in his life.

A KASHWANI' deserves kudos for bringing out in cassette form recordings of great masters from its archives and making them available on a commercial basis to the public. Already cassettes of Rasoolan Bai, Narayanarao Vyas, Hirabai Barodekar, Haflz Ali Khan and Zia Mohinnudin Dagar have been released. A recording of Rak-ta Karapi, a Tagore play, is also available. In Carnatic music T. R. Mahalingam Madurai Mani Iyer and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer fi-gure in the list. Akashwani does Mention these releases periodically and how one can get them. But why can't Akashwani play these cassettes at least once a week and make announcements both at the beginning and at the end of the programme. That would reach classical music listeners better than the announcements made be-fore the weather report or "Today in Lok Sabha" programmes. Among the programmes of the week, Sangeet Sabha's offering of Rajan and Sajan Mishra stood out for its purity and classicism. The duo presented Abogi Kanhra followed by Tilak Kamod. Duo singing can be successful provided the scores are divided and there is good coordination. It was so on Monday night. It is time now to-elevate them to the national hook-up for Saturday night. Sulochana Brahaspati is another artiste who never disappoints. On Tuesday morning she rendered Bhatiar and Madhumat Sarang in a leisurely manner. Sulochana's voi-ce is her asset and she never attempts the impossible. The sing-ing was marked by classical purity. There are very few takers for the violin in the Hindustani idiom. Un-like Carnatic music, it has re-mained a solo instrument. Ashok Goswami who featured in the Tuesday night concert revealed his control on this instrument when he offered Abhogi Kanhra and Chen-juthi. Instead of Madhuri Matoo, re-cordings of Mani Prasad were pre-sented on Thursday morning when he gave a detailed account of Kom-al Rishab Asaveri followed by a Vilambit Khayal. Mani Prasad seems to be a standby vocalist. A musician who gets featured quite often is Hafeez Ahmed Khan. His Anand Bhairav was on the air on Friday morning, scholarly and neat.

such as Japanese and Chinese, while English continued to gain ground and French retained the second place, followed by German and Spanish vying for the third place in Europe. This language business needs to be debated more widely, and oftener over A.I.R. to help create informed public opin-ion about the merits or otherwise of our experiments (some of them quite hasty) like the three language formula, for example, so that long range policies can be evolved to help teachers and the taught alike. We cannot afford to be guided by narrow regional emotions only. The language used over the radio in particular should be such as facilitates easy and effective com-munication, and is not determined by scholars merely to impress their peers, and by politicians to sway voters.

For these kids, Einstein, Newton are role models By Anantha Krishnan M. TIMES NEWS NETWORK Kuppam (Andhra Pradesh): Sachin Ten-dulkar, Aishwarya Rai and Superman don't excite Alimelu, Yogesh and Meera, all pri-mary students of Gudupalli village here. For them, Einstein, Newton and Archimedes are demi-gods, their scientific gurus. These chil-dren are part of a silent science revolution unleashed at Andhra Pradesh CEO N. Chan-drababu Naidu's bastion, Kuppam. Bangalore-based Agastya International Foundation (AIF), which is spearheading the movement of taking science to villages, con-sists of educationists, scientists, technolo-gists, industrialists and NRIs. With the mis-sion of propelling primary education to greater heights, the AIF has so far touched the hearts of over 25,000 students and 2,000 teachers. "The primary education system in India has become mechanical and highly commer-cial. The emphasis on marks and exams pro-vides little opportunity for creative and in-tellectually challenging learning. Agastya lays emphasis on increasing child-teacher in-teraction," says AIF chairman Ramji Ragha-van. Picture this classroom: Around 50 stu-dents and two teachers in tandem explain the very basics of the human breathing process through simple experiments— the equip-ment being a conical flask, balloon and rub-ber pipe. Within no time, the classroom is charged up with every child getting an op- portunity to lay hands on the lab tools.

Later, the students explain what they have experi-enced during the experiment. "Science is all about non-stop excitement. Gulping textbook matter will only fetch you marks but it won't help develop your skills. We ensure that the creative skills are stirred here," says Mahavir Kumar, managing trustee of AIF. While the students get exposed to a unique learning process at the AIF, the teachers are trained to demonstrate the importance of linking education closely with the real-life challenges. In the process, the classroom is rechristened as ' labroom'. Former director of Bhabha Atomic Re-search Centre and founder trustee of the AIF Dr P.K. Iyengar says that teachers here have to be at their creative best. "Science educa-tion shouldn't be wrapped around a model curriculum. Teachers have to play a pivotal role and we encourage live and active appli-cation of new teaching modes." Another feature of the project is a mobile science lab which visits primary schools every day. Even older residents of the village wait anxiously for the mobile lab. "The peo-ple here were never exposed to this kind of teaching. The mobile lab is spreading the sto-ry of science with unique experiments every day," says Subramanyam, head of the AIF's creative learning centre. After Mission Kuppam, the AIF plans to target primary schools in Karnataka and lat-er spread its wings to other parts of the coun-try.

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