The IAS has started an initiative to encourage women to take up science as a career. With the internet, and grants to women who take a career break, it should make life easier. In addition, GOOD daycare for children and maybe even for geriartics would go a long way.
In the previous generation, women did have it tough. After 4 hours of housework, you head to the workplace in a crowded bus. Then worked for 7 hours and commuted back home to do some more housework.
So early on I knew I could not do much dedicated research. I thought I would take a break and then get back to it. But with no good daycare, the break extended to about 10 years ...long enough for the kids to grow up enough to be left alone safely for a couple of hours daily.
Then I looked at a research paper. Yikes!! when did they start writing Chemistry in Greek? Well, so no more research... So I got into teaching. After 10 years, even textbooks looked a bit Greekish, but not too bad. Soon I began to enjoy teaching. Teaching is more rewarding than research except the one odd eureka moment that comes our way during years of research.
Now they popularise the internet!!! Couldn't they have done it 10 years earlier?
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
who goes to college?
When I see some of the boys and girls who go to various colleges, I wonder why they are there. It is obvious that they are not interested. They do not wish to learn whatever is taught to them. They just want the degree. They do not attend classes, give fake medical certificates and just a week before the exams, buy themselves a guide book, memorise a few answers and pass the exams. Why should they waste time and money doing this? I seriously believe a BSc or BA is for those who wish to learn something. But societal compulsions makes it imperative for everyone to get a degree. To enable such students to pass, our exams are also tailored to this mode of "study".
So I suggest, in every subject, there should be two question papers. One catering to the guide book types and another that questions in depth knowledge of the subject. You get your degree by passing anyone, but if you pass the second option, you get an honours degree. The honours degree should have stringent attendance requirements, lab requirements, and the questions should test the analytical abilities, language skill and general awareness of the student.
Another alternative is to bring technical education (like ITI and polytechnics) into the mainstream. You can get a BSc in electrical works or a BA in office management. A BSc in horticulture can set you up as a high end garden landscaping consultant and a BSc in wood technology can setup a carpentery and interior design company. This reduces the pressure on everyone to "do" science. They get a BSc degree anyway. The BSc science programs will then cater to students who want to study Physics/ Chemistry/ Biochemistry etc. Then we can make the science courses truly rigorous.
Until this pressure of everyone needing to get a BSc is reduced, there is no hope for undergraduate science education in India.
So I suggest, in every subject, there should be two question papers. One catering to the guide book types and another that questions in depth knowledge of the subject. You get your degree by passing anyone, but if you pass the second option, you get an honours degree. The honours degree should have stringent attendance requirements, lab requirements, and the questions should test the analytical abilities, language skill and general awareness of the student.
Another alternative is to bring technical education (like ITI and polytechnics) into the mainstream. You can get a BSc in electrical works or a BA in office management. A BSc in horticulture can set you up as a high end garden landscaping consultant and a BSc in wood technology can setup a carpentery and interior design company. This reduces the pressure on everyone to "do" science. They get a BSc degree anyway. The BSc science programs will then cater to students who want to study Physics/ Chemistry/ Biochemistry etc. Then we can make the science courses truly rigorous.
Until this pressure of everyone needing to get a BSc is reduced, there is no hope for undergraduate science education in India.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
people in this village
I have temporarily taken up residence in a village in the hills. Tamil nadu has good roads to all these hill villages---maybe a few exceptions in the remoter parts of the district. Good roads means really that--- smooth ---no potholes at all!!!
The schools in these villages are much better than the ones in the urban areas. They are all run well, students are inside the class rooms, fairly quiet, and listening to what the teacher has to say. The schools have good buildings, a playground where they play football/hockey after school.The children are all polite... in fact, all the people here are polite...a great contrast to Chennai where autodrivers and bus conducters are abusive as a default option.
The school children here have a better life than their urban counterparts because nowadays, urban schools are not into education....they are now just tution centres for the school final exam or for the entrance exams.
The schools in these villages are much better than the ones in the urban areas. They are all run well, students are inside the class rooms, fairly quiet, and listening to what the teacher has to say. The schools have good buildings, a playground where they play football/hockey after school.The children are all polite... in fact, all the people here are polite...a great contrast to Chennai where autodrivers and bus conducters are abusive as a default option.
The school children here have a better life than their urban counterparts because nowadays, urban schools are not into education....they are now just tution centres for the school final exam or for the entrance exams.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
schools thirty years ago
I have studied in 4 different schools in the 1960's. I enjoyed going to three of these schools and hated going to the fourth one. But even this hated school was far better than some of the schools I see nowadays. We had a recess when we ate lunch with friends, played hopscotch or tag or whatever the popular game of the week was, we quarelled with friends, or just ran around in the huge playground collecting fallen tamarind pods , dodging the cheels (kites) that tried to snatch our lunch. We studied everything with equal fervour....history, geography, maths, science, English, Hindi and even a bit of Sanskrit. we had weekly games period, music period, art period in our timetables.
Friday, 30 January 2009
IIT and school education
Sometimes, I think having educated middleclass parents is a curse. I find children in village schools far better tahn those in the urban schools. These schoools(I speak of Hyderabad since I live there) have names like " XXX concept school", "YYY academy" etc
The schools are located on main roads in commercial localities. They are housed in blocks of apartments with small rooms. Of course there is no play ground!
They do not have any games, no music, no art, no playtime, no books to read... in fact nothing that give an education. Not even chatting or fighting with classmates.
These schools charge exorbitant fees and teach the children to "do maths". The children are kept inside these "chambers" from 8 am to 6 or 7pm. doing nothing but memorise definitions and memorise problems. Of course they score 99% in their 10th board exams.
Parents are mighty pleased. They are coached for that holy exam IIT JEE or for the almost equally holy EAMCET exam from class VIII or even class VII till class X and tehn handed over to a similar institution for their inter I and II years(class XI & XII). They work more tahn 14 hours a day 7 days a week. Parents are impressed and are sure their child will egt in to IIT.
Most do not get into IIT and many not even to any decent state engineering or medical colleges. They are therefore told they are useless fit for nothing .
They come to colleges like mine to study for a BSc and THAT explains my previous post.
The schools are located on main roads in commercial localities. They are housed in blocks of apartments with small rooms. Of course there is no play ground!
They do not have any games, no music, no art, no playtime, no books to read... in fact nothing that give an education. Not even chatting or fighting with classmates.
These schools charge exorbitant fees and teach the children to "do maths". The children are kept inside these "chambers" from 8 am to 6 or 7pm. doing nothing but memorise definitions and memorise problems. Of course they score 99% in their 10th board exams.
Parents are mighty pleased. They are coached for that holy exam IIT JEE or for the almost equally holy EAMCET exam from class VIII or even class VII till class X and tehn handed over to a similar institution for their inter I and II years(class XI & XII). They work more tahn 14 hours a day 7 days a week. Parents are impressed and are sure their child will egt in to IIT.
Most do not get into IIT and many not even to any decent state engineering or medical colleges. They are therefore told they are useless fit for nothing .
They come to colleges like mine to study for a BSc and THAT explains my previous post.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
higher education in India
Sometimes, when I see the students taht come to my classes, I wonder whether we were all like that in our college days.
Most of my students have less enthusiasm for learning than a 80 year old person. They all have a dull apathetic attitude to college--- not just my class(may be I am a boring lecturer) but to everything around tehm. Some of them dont even have enthusiasm to go and watch a movie.
It is scary to see 19 year ols like that.
The fault lies with their parents.
Most of my students have less enthusiasm for learning than a 80 year old person. They all have a dull apathetic attitude to college--- not just my class(may be I am a boring lecturer) but to everything around tehm. Some of them dont even have enthusiasm to go and watch a movie.
It is scary to see 19 year ols like that.
The fault lies with their parents.
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