Science Education in Modern India (Part I - A History)

A lot has been written about science education in India, and even more has been written about how we have got it all wrong in our schools. One fact is often quoted by those who are on the other side of the spectrum that India is the janmabhoomi for many a scientist and technologist who have made it big outside India. While some say it was DUE to the Indian educational system, the others say it was DESPITE it. I feel differently. I have come up through the very same Indian Educational System, but with a difference that I will elaborate later on, but first, a history lesson...

India has implemented some incredible educational reforms over the years. Back in the 1960’s, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was aided and funded by UNICEF so as to develop instructional material specific to the newly independent India. But during that time itself the National Education Commission (NEC) was established under the leadership of Padma Bhushan (later Padma Vibhushan) Dr. Daulat Singh Kothari, an eminent scientist and educationist who had learnt from the greatest minds such as Ernest Rutherford. He himself headed the Task Force on Science Education under the NEC. The NEC’s work led to the introduction of the existing 10+2+3 pattern of education in 1975. The National Curriculum Framework 1975 (NCF-75) also laid out a lot of details for the science education in India, such as

• all    subjects    including    science    and mathematics to be made compulsory for all students up to Class X, as a part of general education,
• at the primary stage, science and social sciences were to be taught as a single subject: ‘Environmental Studies’,
• an integrated approach to be followed for the teaching of science at the upper primary stage as opposed to disciplinary approach (that was common till then)
• science to be considered as one composite subject at the upper primary and secondary stages.

Furthermore, major guiding factors were outlined for the science teaching community. They included far-reaching ideas such as:

• science is one; different disciplines of science are only tentative compartmentalization of the subject to facilitate the study of its different aspects,
• there should be an attempt to link teaching of scientific principles with daily life experiences of the learners,
• there should be more stress on the processes of science than the product,
• teaching   of   science   should   lead   to development of certain values,
• curriculum    should    provide    enough opportunities to learners to attain some basic levels of scientific literacy, and
• the curriculum should provide ample opportunities to the teachers to try and apply a variety of methods of teaching to suit the needs of learners of different backgrounds.

Yes, all this had been clearly laid out back in 1975.

The next landmark was the National Policy of Education 1986 (NPE-86) which led to NCF-88. The teaching of science at the secondary stage was conceived for the first time as a single subject rather than three separate disciplines as had been the practice in the past. Thereafter NCF 2000 separated out Environmental Studies as a separate subject instead of being part of both, science and social studies.

It is clear that the leading educationists of early independent India gave science education a lot of focus which, over the years, seems to have been lost. It may be attributed to fear of criticism or a general lack of interest due to reduced funding of the education system. But I am not here to write about politics. I wanted to tell you why I feel that neither is everything bad about the Indian Education System nor is everything right about it. But what we simply cannot blame, is the fundamentals of the Indian Science Education System.

I grew up around those people who were part of reforming Science Education in India. When I was in secondary school, the new science books came out. These had a good print quality and seemed to have more figures and diagrams. I also saw the names of top scientists of the country in the Textbook Development Committee right after the Foreword. This included some names I was familiar with as I used to address them as ‘uncle’ when I saw them around the IIT Kanpur Campus, where I grew up.

The new textbooks were simply superb but were maybe a bit too radical especially for the Classes IX and X. And that is the reason that the teachers had absolutely no idea what to do with them. The focus was on providing a ‘well-rounded’ scientific education to the mid-teenagers who had, so far, been told that rote learning was the best policy. Most teachers floundered and ended up asking the students to stick to the tried and tested rote learning. Many might say they had good teachers but for a country the size of India, great ideas have often been implemented with horrible results.

I am sure there were teacher workshops and training programs organized by NCERT, but I doubt that the objective of the new books was properly conveyed to them. And since that was my experience in a school within the Campus walls of one of the most premier technical academic institutions of India, I am afraid to think what was happening elsewhere.

Things were far better for the XI and XII books. As some say, NCERT had/have some of the best science school textbooks in the world for those age groups. The only problem was, after Class X where a student was being taught the best nutrition and hygiene policies, how was he/she then supposed to suddenly understand cellular structure? Or someone who was idly being asked to consider the world around them to understand the physical laws naturally, suddenly be asked to grasp the complex topic of mathematics of superposition of waves?

The shock of going from Class X to Class XI was a bit too much for many science students of my time. But were the books to blame or was it that the teachers had no clue how to provide an appropriate segue for the students? [Note: This gap has been somewhat reduced in the latter years, but even today the X to XI jump is talked about.]

We know that, at the end of the day it is the teaching which builds a personality, however what about the love of a subject? Students will start loving science if one, they have a natural propensity for it, and two, if their teachers (whether it is the parents or school teachers or, dare I say, the ‘tuition teachers’ with whom many students seem to spend an inordinate amount of time) introduce them to the topics in a manner that will allay any fears they may have about understanding science.

References:

• Position Paper, National Focus Group on Teaching of Science, 2006, NCERT.
• Wikipedia Page: Daulat Singh Kothari 
• Face to Face with Professor C N R Rao, July 2019, Resonance.

(Originally published on 16th June 2020)