Meet for science education

Scientists from across the country and abroad will participate at the three-day Asia-Pacific Meet on Science Education which is scheduled to be held in the city on Monday.

Announcing that the meet will be held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), NIAS professor Roddam Narasimha told mediapersons that the meet would contemplate on improving science education and woo more students towards scientific research. The meet would be inaugurated by governor T N Chaturvedi.

"The attempt is not only to see how technology can be used for education, particularly elementary and science education, but also find ways to improve content so that it becomes attractive and interesting to students" Narasimha said.

He noted that the level of research was going down not only because of lesser opportunities but also because science is not lucrative.

"The kind of scientific manpower needed to do something significant in serious scientific research are joining the IT industry. We will be making some recommendations on how to make science research more lucrative, though we can never match the industry," he said.

Narasimha observed that universities and Indian Institutes of Technology were not giving enough thrust to basic science. "They have become teaching bodies and are not active in research." Narasimha said.

According to him, another key objective of the meet was to do something outside the curriculum.

"Case studies of experiments in education in India and other parts of the world will be presented. These include Azim Premji Foundation's efforts in India, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's efforts, covering 34,000 schools in that country, NIAS' initiatives in Chamarajanagar district, the Edusat projects, lessons in e-learning and television channels in education," he noted.

Noted academicians and researchers, including Prof S Holmgren of the University of Stockholm, Noble Laureate Sir Harold Kroto and Prof C N R Rao will also be participating in the event.