CMYK
BG-MYBG
15THE HINDU TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014
BANGALORE
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: TheKerala State Council for Sci-ence, Technology and Envi-ronment (KSCSTE) ispreparing to scale up its ef-forts to improve the quality ofscience education and re-search in the State.
The two-pronged strategyevolved by the council in-volves a reorientation of theeducation network and thecreation of new institutions,both aimed at bringing morestudents into the sciencestream.
Buoyed by the success ofprogrammes like the Sasthra-poshini scheme for strength-ening high school sciencelaboratories, Students Pro-gramme for Excellence in Ex-perimental Design (SPEED),Sasthrasameeksha and Nur-turing Excellence in ScienceTeaching (NEST), KSCSTE isnow focusing on providing anenvironment for more stu-dents to move towards highereducation and research in sci-ence.
“The quality of scienceeducation and research inKerala will improve onlywhen bright and meritoriousstudents from the school edu-cation system take sciencesubjects as their first option.Motivation and encourage-ment are required right fromthe middle school level atleast to achieve this target”,says V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai,executive vice-president,KSCSTE and Principal Secre-tary, Science and Technology,Government of Kerala.
“The variety of opportuni-ties available for higher edu-cation, research andemployment in the variousbranches of sciences is not re-ally known to the school chil-dren, teachers, parents andsociety at large,” Prof. Pillaisays.
Over the last two years,KSCSTE has taken up severalmassive awareness pro-grammes in schools to attractbright children to opt for sci-ence disciplines in highereducation. The council hasinstituted a scholarshipscheme for top- ranking stu-dents to study science in affil-iated colleges in Kerala. It hasalso launched anotherscheme to promote young tal-ents in science from amonghigh school students.
Scaling up
“What is required is a scal-ing up of these approaches re-aching the entire schooleducation network. The col-
legiate and university scienceeducation systems also need athorough revamping for im-proving the quality of scienceeducation and research,”Prof. Pillai says.
“The policy level interven-tions required for enhancingthe quality and relevance ofscience education and scien-tific research are in restruc-turing the institutionalmechanism, providing aca-demic autonomy, facultyrecruitment and adoptingglobally accepted parametersof scientific excellence,” hesays.
The Council suggests mov-ing away from the standar-dised curriculum offered by
widely used science text-books which is mostly de-signed to have studentsmemorise several unrelatedfacts and do not require themto explore in depth, an inte-grated series of concepts andprinciples that cut across tra-ditional disciplines. It advo-cates a science curriculumwhich is dynamic, flexible andlocally meaningful.
The proposed changes areaimed at creating a more stu-dent-centred, hands-on, andexperiential way of learningscience. The council seeks toshift the focus to training, re-training and continuous ca-pacity building of scienceteachers to achieve quality re-
form in science education. Italso proposes linkage withthe higher education system,and research and develop-ment sectors to create aspira-tions in science among schoolchildren.
“The science academieswhich focus generally on re-search accomplishments alsoneed to create linkages withschool education. School sci-ence education needs to be anintegral component of uni-versity education. Sciencediscipline-based pedagogyneed to be developed fortraining subject-specific sci-ence teachers,” saysProf.Pillai.
Such interlinkages are ex-
pected to result in seamlessintegration of the conceptand practice of different lev-els science learning, educa-tion, research anddevelopment. Creation ofsuch ecosystems in very largenumbers is very significantfor the State, particularly inthe context of nurturing hu-man resources.
“The quality of our scien-tific research and develop-ment institutions will dependupon the quality of studentswe can attract into science,the freedom we give them inpursuing scientific researchand the human resource pol-icy we follow in building ourinstitutions.
In an interconnectedteaching, research, develop-ment and extension ecosys-tem, new paradigms ofinnovation emerge and thestudents and youth get a di-rect feel of the system. Thiswill equip students and youthto innovate and create em-ployment opportunities andfind solutions to key issues,”Prof. Pillai says.
Institution building
KSCSTE is also in the proc-ess of establishing an insti-tute that will identifytechnologies relevant to Ker-ala and adopt or adapt themto solve issues which are spe-cific to the State. The CentreState Technology TransferInstitute will be a joint initia-tive of the Department of Sci-ence and technology,Government of India, and theKSCSTE.
It will support the devel-opment and demonstrationof innovative and need-basedtechnologies relevant to theState. Issues of drinking wa-ter, waste management, agri-cultural processing andmodernisation/value addi-tion to the traditional sectorindustries like cashew, coir
and handloom are the prior-itised areas of intervention bythis institute.
The new institute will per-fect the already availabletechnologies, develop suita-ble adaptation strategies andto commercialise such tech-nologies. The institutionalcapabilities and the expertiseof the public and private sec-tor research and develop-ment institutions in Keralawill be utilised for technologydevelopment, transfer andadaptation.
Two other new institutes,namely the Srinivasa Rama-nujan Institute of Basic Sci-ences (SRIBS) and theCritical Minerals ResearchInstitute (CMRI) are also be-ing set up by the council aspart of its perspective plan.Named after the great IndianMathematical genius, Srini-vasa Ramanujan, SRIBS fo-cuses on capacity building,training and research in thevarious branches of naturalsciences and mathematics.
Located in the campus ofthe Rajiv Gandhi Institute ofTechnology, Pampady, Kot-tayam, the institute has beenconducting post-graduateand research level capacitybuilding programmes utilis-ing the expertise of interna-tionally renowned scientistsfrom premier institutions inthe country and abroad. Overa dozen programmes havebeen conducted in collabora-tion with the universities andR & D institutions in theState. Summer Schools andWinter Schools in cuttingedge and frontier areas of re-search in basic sciences arealso being planned under theauspices of SRIBS.
The Critical Minerals Re-search Institute (CMRI)isproposed to undertake re-search and development ac-tivities related to the criticalminerals and transition met-
als from the mineral sands ofKerala. Detailed project pro-posal for the institute is un-der preparation. The institutewill be located in Thiruva-nanthapuram or Kollam dis-trict. A nine-member expertcommittee is working on theshort and long term objec-tives of the CMRI .
Technologydevelopment
The Technology Develop-ment and Project Manage-ment Division (TDPMD) ofKSCSTE is responsible forpromoting qualitative re-search in the emerging areasof engineering and technol-ogy. It also promotes and sup-ports rural technology and itsupgradation for wider appli-cations to generate employ-ment and reduce thedrudgery of rural households.
The Technology Develop-ment and Adaptation Pro-gramme (TDAP) of thedivision provides catalyticsupport for the developmentand demonstration of innova-tive and need-based technol-ogies. The scheme is designedto perfect the technologies,develop suitable adaptationstrategies and raise the tech-nologies to the level of com-mercialisation.
TDPMD also provides as-sistance in the form of grantsfor popularisation of sciencein the State.
The Basic Science Divisionof KSCSTE offers fellowshipsfor rank holders in M.Sc. andM.Tech to carry out researchfor their Ph.D programme. Italso provides financial assist-ance to departments or col-leges for science research oracademic work with particu-lar relevance to the economicor industrial development ofthe State. Grants are sanc-tioned for strengthening aca-demic infrastructure in theseinstitutions.
Special Correspondent
REWARDING YOUNG TALENT: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy distributing the Prathibha scholarshipsinstituted by the KSCSTE to promote talent in science among students.
Creating an ecosystem for science education and research
