Need to promote study of science, says A P J Abdul Kalam

The current teaching methods need to be revamped with more practicals and experiments to inculcate "scientific temper" among students, said experts at a national conference organised in the city to discuss the declining interest in science education.

Inaugurating the two-day event that began on Friday at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Tarnaka, former president, A P J Abdul Kalam said, "senior scientists should talk and interact with students on a regular basis and mobile science labs should be arranged to visit institutes in districts and villages and perform minor experiments and demonstrations for students." Emphasizing on the need to promote the study of science among the youth, Kalam said that parents should encourage their children to pursue their field of choice, whether arts or science. The renowned scientist also appealed to national scientific organizations to be more open to taking in PhD and M Sc scholars and assist them with their research.

Other experts present at the event, while stressing the need for better curriculums, pointed out how the existing system owing to its poorly designed syllabus has failed to drive students towards research in the field of science who have instead branched out into other lucrative professions.

"Only 30% of engineering graduates end up with actual engineering jobs as majority take up IT sector posts," said Ch Mohan Rao, director, CCMB and president of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (APAS) while highlighting the growing number of vacancies in scientific organizations across the country. "With the right qualifications, a scientist's starting salary could be around Rs 45,000 per month and go up to around Rs 1 lakh within five years," he, interestingly, added.

Offering solutions to improve the quality of science education experts suggested the turning B Sc programmes into four-year long courses with the final year focusing on imparting practical knowledge and specific skills. "Following this, students must be allowed to directly do their Ph D instead of spending another two years on M Sc. This will encourage the students to opt for science at higher levels and increase their employability too," Rao said.

Other experts present at the conference from various organizations like National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI, National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), among others, too stressed on spreading awareness among students and their parents about the wide scope of science. Emphasis was also laid on the need to invest in science and research. Reportedly, the current investment is only 0.9% of our GDP while Japan invests around 3% of their GDP on science and technology, they said.

Nearly 450 people including teachers and students from school and colleges were present at the venue to participate in interactive sessions on various topics related to science education. Participants suggested developing a national science cadre under which meritorious students at the 10+2 level would be sponsored for higher education and assured jobs in their respective fields.

"Student-scientist interactions should be encouraged. Good colleges across the country could be turned into universities with a limit of 10,000 students to facilitate better focus on each student," suggested P M Bhargava, former director, CCMB.