Globalisation of science education
P.K. THIRUVIKRAMAN
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Without the benefit of standard textbooks our students will continue to wallow in mediocrity
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Science is supposed to be universal. Its fundamental principles transcend the barriers of culture and geography. The fundamental principles of Physics as applicable to macroscopic phenomena have stood the test of time. The content and methodology of teaching basic Physics courses in most countries are more or less standardised. Unlike with some subjects like History, there is hardly any controversy about what to teach and how to teach it.
Given this background, one would have thought that at least in this sphere of education, our educationists would have got it right. No! We have made a mess of it.
To begin with, we have innumerable boards in our country, each with its own syllabus and mode of teaching and evaluation. This disparity persists at the university level (though the UGC and the AICTE have now prescribed model curricula).
The disparity in the syllabi followed by various boards reflects in the performance of students. The CBSE (NCERT) books are the closest to some of the universally acclaimed textbooks. Variety is fine, but not at the cost of authenticity. In any case, unless there is some improvement, there is no point in trying to re-invent the wheel.
One may argue that in the formative years, a child should study a book written by a local author (since he would use familiar examples). This is no longer true for higher education at the undergraduate level (or even at the secondary school level). Very standard books are now available at reasonable prices in the Indian market. Why can’t they be prescribed as textbooks?
To cite an example, the books on undergraduate level Physics by Halliday and Resnick have by now attained the status of a bible in most parts of the world. Indian students, except for the fortunate few who are in reputed institutions like IITs or BITS, Pilani, are not exposed to such books.
Mishmash
The average student in an average Indian university is forced to read books by “local experts” which are tailor-made for their exams. Most of these books in this era of ‘cut and paste’ are an incoherent mishmash of material ‘borrowed’ from well-known books.
Any student who reads such books will not develop either understanding or interest in the subject. Is it any wonder that our industry laments that there is scarcity of quality manpower? Many surveys have proved that our claims of academic superiority are quite hollow. A recent survey published in India Today showed that the understanding of scientific concepts among our school children is far poorer than that of children in many other countries.
We have no qualms about allowing foreign players in areas where they are probably not required, but we hesitate a lot to allow them where it would make a crucial difference. We may not be ready to allow foreign universities to open campuses in our country, but at least we can allow their textbooks wherever required. Without the benefit of standard textbooks our students would continue to wallow in mediocrity.
Of course just prescribing a set of books will not change the situation overnight. A bigger barrier to academic excellence is our mode of evaluation of students, which lays emphasis on rote learning at the cost of understanding and application of concepts. The hope is that once we change our textbooks we will automatically follow the methods of learning recommended in these books.
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