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IN JULY THE OBSERVER Research Foundation, Mumbai released a study titled Whither Science Education in Indian Colleges? Urgent Reforms to Meet the Challenges of a Knowledge Society, based on a qualitative survey of top-ranked science colleges in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. The report was released by eminent scientist Bharat Ratna Dr. C.N.R. Rao. A summary of the observations and conclusions of the report is presented below.
India’s dismal science ecosystem which is a stark contrast to technology leaders such as Japan, South Korea, China, Israel and the United States, stems from low investment in research and development (R&D) and tertiary education — 0.88 and 0.70 percent of GDP respectively. Hardly 15 percent of India’s 700 universities qualify as research universities. Therefore most R&D investment flows to the stand-alone public research institutes which are funded by block grants — reflecting a lack of evaluation-based funding in the public R&D system.
Patent filings, a measure of research translating into commercial activity, has remained low touching an estimated six per million people. Patent filings per billion dollars of R&D spending in India is much lower (less than 30 percent) than in China, not to mention technology leaders like Japan. According to a 2012 report by the Amsterdam-based company Elsevier BV, which publishes medical and scientific literature, the number of research papers published in India in 2010 aggregated 65,487 against 330,818 in China.
Flagging interest in science and technology nationwide is evidenced in this study. Despite a 21 percent increase in undergraduate enrolments in science disciplines as indicated by UGC 2011-12 data, the number of people in science and technology-based careers is actually very small as many youth pursue unrelated career paths after qualifying in science and technology. Tellingly, while the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister’s (SAC-PM) vision document (2010) calls for the production of 30,000 science and technology Ph Ds per year by 2025, according to UGC, a mere 8,286 science postgraduates were awarded doctorates in 2013. Quite obviously, an increase of intake capacity in postgraduate education, and radical improvement in the quality of institutions which nurture Ph Ds is the precondition of attaining the SAC-PM target.
Respondents including heads of institutions, teachers, research scholars, students, placement officers, and potential employers interviewed for this study, identified the most critical challenges confronting science education institutions as irrelevant and outdated syllabuses; deficient laboratory infrastructure and library resources; inadequate funding; crippling faculty shortages; poor quality teaching and minimal connect between industry and colleges/universities resulting in low employability of graduates — problems likely to be amplified in science colleges in tier-II and III cities and rural outbacks.
Clearly, stagnation in science education cannot be endured. Therefore, the authors of the study have made several recommendations for transforming the science education landscape. Among them:
• Accredited institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research should mentor science faculties/colleges to develop into centres of excellence
• A network of 200 science colleges of excellence, thus nurtured, will generate a large number of Ph Ds and postgraduates for research centres, and to serve as science teachers and communicators
• Outmoded compartmentalisation of science into physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, should be replaced by an integrated sciences curriculum comprising core concepts drawn from diverse knowledge streams including liberal arts
• To address faculty shortages and improve teaching-learning standards, scientists and academics of repute residing overseas — of Indian and foreign origin — and professionals in industry and agriculture should be welcomed into institutions and given the freedom to teach new courses
• Encouragement and training must be provided to teachers and students in the use of new ICT (information and communication technologies)
• Universities and colleges need to intensively connect and collaborate with public and private research laboratories
• Improved industry-academia linkages will help to commercialise R&D output
• Industry and agriculture professionals should be inducted into the boards of studies of colleges/ universities
• Internship programmes in industry/agriculture should be made compulsory for undergraduate students
Science education is too important to be left to educators. Committed professionals from all walks of life need to become involved in this urgent national endeavour.
(Radha Viswanathan is a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai)