FIRST-EVER NATIONAL TEACHERS SCIENCE
CONGRESS OPENS IN BHOPAL
The first-ever 4-day
National Teachers Science Congress opened in Bhopal today. Over
700 teachers involved in teaching science and mathematics in secondary
and senior secondary schools are attending the congress to share
their experiences. They will have brain-storming sessions with
more than 300 experts from NCERT and other such governmental and
non-governmental organisations, "on evolving innovative experiments"
in teaching science and mathematics to students.
Inaugurating the
Congress, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Shri
Bachi Singh Rawat said some novel and unique suggestions of contemporary
importance, are expected to come out of the deliberations. These
are expected to give a boost to sagging interest among students
to take up science as career. Ever since IT explosion and globalisation,
students' interest in science has been showing a declining trend.
To arrest this, the government has been taking a number of measures
including career opportunities, job guarantee and facilities for
research besides attractive fellowships and awards, he said.
The government has
been holding Indian Science Congress every year for decades at
the apex level and the National Children's Science Congress at
lower level, has been made annual feature. Shri Rawat said that
somewhere it was felt that there has to be a national teachers
science congress, as a orientation programme to enable them to
sustain the interest among students in science. Hence, it resulted
in the entirely new initiative of holding national teachers science
congress.
As part of the initiative,
Shri Rawat said the Department of Science and Technology has launched
a new programme called "Fund for improvement in science and technology
infrastructure in higher educational institutions", to refurbish
the teaching and research laboratories. About 450 institutions/departments
have already benefited with substantial funding under the programme.
Shri Rawat underscored the need to sustain basic research i.e.,
fundamental science, lest there will be no new technologies and
their upgradation.
