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Train teachers to change their approach: expert

Special Correspondent

Low-cost science kits handed over to 50 Corporation schools Low-cost science kits handed over to 50 Corporation schools

CHENNAI: : Teachers must be given training to revise their approach to the teaching-learning process, Vasanthi Devi, president, AID-India and former Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, has said.

Unless teachers change their perspective, it will be impossible to bring about qualitative changes in the classroom, she said. Thanks to the ever-expanding burden of the syllabus, teachers were forced to concentrate on completing it and failed to excite the curiosity of children, she said at a function to hand over low-cost Eureka Science Labs to 50 Corporation schools here.

Over the last 20 years, the standard of government schools had deteriorated rapidly because of continuous neglect by both parents and the establishment. Consequently, schools catering to different levels of affordability had mushroomed. Vacancies and non-availability of infrastructure were some of the reasons that eroded the faith of people in government schools.

However, under the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan, a fresh approach has been adopted and funds are being infused into government schools. It is possible to purchase the science lab kits (now costing Rs.5,000) for all government schools. The impact of the model could be evaluated for a year to see what difference it makes to the learning process, Dr. Vasanthi Devi said.

The Eureka Science Lab kits were developed, with the help of a number of scientists in the Indian Institute of Technology and the Institute of Mathematical Science, by AID-India. Satyam Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Satyam Computers, is a collaborator in this venture, which is part of an initiative to improve the quality of science education and make it exciting. Each kit, which comes with an instruction manual, enables students to do 300 different experiments that illustrate and explain the concepts learnt in school.

Ranjini Devi, Education Officer, Chennai Corporation, thanked the organisations for providing the kits free of cost to Corporation schools. Some schools had set up labs with funds from the SSA, but the kits would complement these labs and be of help in getting children to understand basic scientific concepts.

Satyam Foundation supports and strengthens the vulnerable and underprivileged in urban areas, its director Balaji Utla said. A volunteer-based organisation, in which senior management staff and associates volunteer their services, the foundation works in healthcare, livelihoods, environment, HIV/AIDS, slum development, underprivileged children and especially their education. Narayanan Venkataraman, who heads the Education Initiative for Satyam Foundation in Chennai, handed over a kit to Srinivasan, principal, Nungambakkam Corporation Boys Higher Secondary School.

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