102nd Indian Science Congress

As I am writing this post, I am viewing the telecast of the proceedings of the 1st day of the 102nd Indian Science Congress being held in Mumbai.

Hope this year's session extends beyond ritualistic speeches and routine displays and gets into deeper aspects of how science and technology can enhance the living standards of common folk. I think that it is high time that aspects such as mobile technology and its use by small farmers and artisans, wi-fi in school classrooms and ethical aspects of working in science and technology are discussed in detail with well defined action plans.   

I think that by bringing in drastic improvement in how we run such conferences, we can enable our youngsters smell the sweet aroma of scientific works carried out by our ancestors in ancient India for the welfare and prosperity of people. This certainly requires a drastic revamp of our Teacher Education Programs and K12 School curriculum and textbooks towards quality. School Education professionals know too well as to how several education commissions and reports developed so far in our country (including the Yashpal Committe Report) have failed to bring in significant improvement in the quality of school education and teacher training. (If we had adapted the philosophy of education as proposed by great visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, we would have probably been the most scientifically advanced country with strong ethical base).

(Even after 67 years since we got independence, most of our K-12 schools do not have well defined home work policies either because they don't have time or because ministries of education lack guidance documents. I think that it is important for educationists at different levels to work on such issues and steer our school education towards quality).