The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : School curriculum is not challenging, says IIT professor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 04, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

School curriculum is not challenging, says IIT professor

Staff Reporter

Experts stress enhanced understanding rather than scoring high marks

TOP TALENT: Physics talent test top rankers N.G. Srinivas of DAV Boys (Gopalapuram), and Vishal Chandrasekar and Rahul Srinivasan from Padma Seshadri (Nungambakkam), at a Physics Society meet held in Chennai on Sunday. — Photo: Shaju John

CHENNAI: "The present day school curriculum is not very challenging," said T.S. Natrajan of the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He was speaking at the meeting organised by The Physics Society here on Sunday.

"Only a challenging question paper will bring out the best in students," he said.

He had formed the society in 1971 as he was "very dissatisfied with the way talented students were then trained in schools and colleges."

Education had been made a means of livelihood while its actual purpose was learning and understanding, he noted.

Mr. Ananthan, a teacher with 30 years experience, said the government could encourage students specialising in a particular streams such as Physics, Chemistry or Mathematics and give them a good salary, if they agreed to teach in schools, after their higher studies.

"Then, we will have a lot of Nobel laureates from India," he added.

The Physics Society, founded by R. Ananthan, has been involved in several academic pursuits, including conducting the Physics talent test for school students every year.

At Sunday's meeting academicians and experts emphasised the need for laying emphasis on enhanced understanding rather than on scoring high.

The society's Secretary, C.S. Ravi Shankar, urged more schools and colleges to encourage students to take up such tests and be involved in the society's activities.

S. Mohan, director, Technical Marketing, Net Devices Inc., and Venkatesan of Prime Source Technologies were among others who were present.

Twenty-three students from among those who took up the written test in December were chosen for an interview round. Here they had to solve concept-based questions framed by Mr. Ananthan.

Prizes were awarded to rank-holders. Vishal Chandrasekar and Rahul Srinivasan of Padma Seshadri (Nungambakkam) got the top two ranks while N.G. Srinivas of D.A.V. Boys (Gopalapuram) got the third rank.

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