Though we have invested all our energy in science education right from the early schooling, we have managed only to produce collective mediocrity in these fields year after year? Examine why. (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
Reasons
Nature of school education
· While all over the world, children are becoming more independent in terms of their intellectual practices, our students are becoming more and more like little soldiers marching from one class to another tuition.
· Science education is not egalitarian and is designed to keep people out rather than embrace diversity and multiplicity of background, language and talents.
· This is done in the name of merit, and yet it is precisely this merit that we lack on the global stage.
State of science administration
· Funding agencies like the Department of Science and Technology and a host of others which disburse hundreds of crores of rupees for research in science are not held accountable to the results of that funding.
· So many projects worth crores end up with some minor publications.
· Worse, scientists know best how personal contacts and networks are still so important in securing funds and other incentives in science in India today.
Cultural response to the idea of excellence
· The school system as well as science administration are both linked together by a common problem: the inability to understand and deal with excellence.
· In academic institutions across the country, it is far more difficult for a person to stand out in terms of high quality work since the system has little support for excellence.
· Part of the reason is that we do not have confidence in our own judgment of quality.
