Science Education in Modern India (Part II: How to fill the gap?)

It is always a clichéd thing to say, “…but India’s problems are in its numbers.” Unfortunately, it is true in the case of education in India.

In ancient India, there were Gurukuls where the Gurus used to teach their chosen students. Education was in the midst of nature. That helped the students see the effects of the theories of science/philosophy prevalent at that time. The primary characteristic of such an education was the relationship between the Guru (teacher) and the Shishya (student). It was a life-long one (PhD students may somewhat relate to this!). This system continued until the British Raj in some form or the other, but then went on a steep decline as the British started spreading their brand of education throughout the Empire. I guess, around that time, Indians started having the feeling that west was the best.

Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, and Swami Shraddhanand, were the pioneers of the modern Gurukul system. Today various Gurukulam still exist in India. The focus in these Gurukulam is on Sanskrit, Vedic Mathematics, the Arts, Vedic Astrology, Jyotish Vigyan and Yoga. My personal belief is that, with the proper merger of the Modern Sciences in their curriculum (they can do away with the history part if they so want), they could become the best examples of education anywhere in the world. Unfortunately very few of these modern Gurukulam have managed to shine through the system.

And then, there are also the Gurukul “International” schools. Schools started either directly by a Swamiji of fame or by some of his disciples. These I will not comment on (as I do not have sufficient knowledge about them) and will move on to talk about the “Alternative Schools” of India.

“Alternative Schools” is the term given to schools which claim to give children an education which is “beyond textbooks”. They basically say that they do not adhere to the conventional methods of teaching and shun rote learning. Let us understand how that impacts science education in India.

Imagine you are a new student in an Ancient Gurukula on the plains of the river Ganga. Pollution is non-existent and what you see around you is nature at its best. At night, the clearest sky reveals millions of dots of lights. Your Guru asks you different questions which make you look at nature in order to try and come up with a logical response. No answer is considered stupid. Sometimes even your Guru is surprised with your answer and has to pause to rethink his own knowledge. There is nothing you cannot ask.

In Modern India, the “Alternative Schools” claim not only to encourage the same rational thinking and reasoning amongst their students, but also to impart occupational skills, and a deeper understanding of culture and art amongst the students. With respect to science, their approach is to give more weightage on experiments. Unfortunately or fortunately, these schools still need to adhere to the National Education Policies and hence cannot stray too far from the prescribed curriculum. Interestingly, majority of fee-paying students of such schools are from wealthy families. I guess many of these schools have a fee structure more consistent with those families. Also, socially it is more acceptable to send your child to a school where they train her/him to compete in the rat race of life in India and not look at nature and explore its mysteries.

One of the blogs I came across, while researching Alternative Schools, claimed that the main reason for the surge of such schools was that the CBSE and ICSE had “the most boring, unimaginative and badly written books you are likely to come across”. This could not be further from the truth, at least, when it comes to the Sciences (Ref: Part I of this article).

While writing this article, I got the opportunity to interview a student of an Alternative School in India. His school has been ranked the best boarding school in India multiple times, despite (or because of) being an Alternative School.

His assessment w.r.t. science education, while somewhat along the lines of expectation, was a bit sobering also. Up till Class 8^th science education was fun. A lot of focus was on practical experiences. Experiments were conducted using every-day materials. Nature walks were conducted, a lot of discussion was encouraged, and rote learning was never required. But come Class 9 and the central board syllabus took over. Teachers were equally approachable, highly focused on each student and provided logical explanations for most topics, however, he still felt there was something missing. The focus was now on theory. Experiments were still part of the curriculum, but the ‘fun factor’ had diminished. It was a chore and rote learning did seem like a good short-cut.

So are the central board curricula to blame?

Before we get into the blame-game let us also talk about what other supporting solutions exist and how do they fare.

Try to carry out a Google Search on any Physics or Chemistry topic from an NCERT book. You will see a lot of hits from Indian websites. The sad part is that all these sites are catering to students from the Indian boards trying to learn these topics, and worse still, none of these do anything different. A majority of these sites explain the concept in a manner which is worse than the explanation in the NCERT textbook (again, I find the NCERT books just fine). Lately, some app-based “education solutions” have been regularly bugging us with their advertisements on TV and web. Are they doing something different?

On the surface the lessons on these apps look appealing and interesting. Their ‘hook’ is that they are colourful and their videos are slick, they ensure that your kid covers the syllabus and that you no longer feel guilty about giving a smart phone or a tablet to a ten year old. However, if you are only looking for slickness and the syllabus, there is always Khan Academy. And if you are a parent who is willing to dedicate some hours of your time every week to putting science material together for your kid, you can do a far better job than these apps.

Khan Academy, when I first heard about them over ten years ago, sounded too good to be true and I assumed they would disappear soon. After all, a company whose mission is to “provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere” cannot last in today’s material world, can it? Apparently (and happily), I was wrong. In 2010 Google and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided the first major grants to Khan Academy. Today, the Academy is thriving. They have single-handedly done more for education than any other entity has ever tried to do.

The Khan Academy recognizes the power of numbers and impact of good education for those looking for knowledge. It has a specific section for Science for Indian students. Hundreds of thousands of kids have taken advantage of it in India, but many still find it difficult…. because of the language, English.

I have tried to sit a Government School student down in front of a laptop and make him go through some of the Khan Academy videos. It works perfectly when I am next to the student explaining by pausing the video every few minutes but, left alone, the student floundered. Mind you, the student was a bright one and did quite well in his studies ultimately. But many of the common every-day examples used by the tutors were completely alien to the student, and the accent was difficult.

Here we come to the ‘diversity’ part. India has 22 scheduled languages. Indian schools teach in at least one of those languages depending on the region. English, while crudely understood in vast areas of the country, is still not a language that can be used to teach in most parts.

In short, the only long-lasting solution to the problem of improving science education in India must involve schools and the schoolteachers.

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the Sciences themselves to get a flavour of what is missing. Let me exemplify with some Physics theories.

It was only when I was in my twenties did I realize that Albert Einstein had basically rewritten the Newton’s law of gravitation (in the form of General Relativity) in 1915 and that it had been proven just four years later. As far as Newton’s Laws of Motion were concerned, Einstein’s Special Relativity had been “proven to be the most accurate model of motion at any speed when gravitational effects are negligible”. Up until then “relativity” was an exotic and mysterious term to me.

So, why do kids AROUND the globe study only Newton’s theories and not the updates after that (just mentioning Einstein’s name and the name of his theories is not enough)? Because they are simple or because not many teachers would have an inkling on how to teach the newer topics? So, students remain less educated and science loses out on further big leaps because we cannot get teachers to explain some theories? I find this extremely hard to believe.

Take the example of Special Relativity. Which kid would not be amazed to know that when one sees an object in motion, then the apparent length of the moving object is shorter than when it was static?

Or take the example of General Relativity where the time passes at a slower pace closer to Earth than away from it. Wouldn’t the wide-eyed kid want to learn more? Why do we think that the logical thought experiments carried out by Einstein would somehow be impossible for the kids to understand? Because we adults cannot comprehend them? That would be stupidest logic, if so. The brain of a child is best suited to comprehend complex theories as long as the teachers pace the education well.

(I am not proposing that we do away with the old theories, mind you. Newton’s laws still help us do most of the calculations on Earth and they could be introduced to the students as simplifications/special cases of the currently accepted theories.)

Over the years scientists, starting from Richard Feynman to today’s Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bryan Cox and others, have shown how simply Einstein’s unique ideas can be visualized and explained easily.

In India, it was (Padma Vibhushan) Professor Yash Pal. On National TV he was the go-to guy for anything about science. He was a regular on the science programme Turning Point. He was also answering readers’ science related queries on the English Newspaper The Tribune. And, of course, he was, at various times, Secretary Department of Science, Chairman of University Grants Commission, the force behind Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and even the Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). As a kid I always waited for his TV show to see him conducting all kinds of experiments.

In my teens, I was also a big fan of Dr. Jayant C. Narlikar. I was lucky enough to attend couple of his lectures at IIT Kanpur. He was always allocated the largest Lecture Hall, and it always ended up over-crowded. He would transport one to the world of stars and galaxies within minutes.

All these popular scientists have some identifiable characteristics in common. They are all good orators, but they also come across as affable. And they all have a unique knack in relating complex topics with everyday observations. The amazing thing is that these unique characteristics are, in fact, not that unique. In other words, many schoolteachers can and do have these characteristics also. They may not have the PhDs and the star-power, but they are the ones influencing dozens of the next-gen every day.

Come what may, whether we look at internet based guides, app-based education solutions or the Khan Academy (yup, they are their own category), the conclusion remains the same, the schools and the schoolteachers need to be better prepared, and soon.

This will simply not be possible when a total of $7.8 Billion is allocated to the Department of School Education and Literacy for an entire year. How do we expect a department whose task is to combat illiteracy (most optimistic figures of 253 million illiterate people in India) and also sustain over 1.3 million schools and the education of 300 million school-going children to suddenly start thinking of improving the education system by providing an additional boost to the schools and the schoolteachers? So, yes, India is all about numbers.

India has not even reached the self-imposed target of 6% of GDP for the Education budget. Even when India reaches that target, the popular job-creation schemes will take up a large chunk as it does now. When are we going to focus on the schools and the students?

To fill the gap, a concerted effort on a national scale is required. Without the political will that simply won’t be possible. The current government seems to have made all the right noises about education, but the proof is in the pudding, and we are yet to taste it.

References

• Educational Statistics at a Glance, Deptt of School Education & Literacy, MHRD, GoI, 2018.
• Wikipedia (Dr. Yash Pal, Khan Academy)
• www.khanacademy.org

(Original version published on 19th June, 2020)