Did you feel sleepy During Science classes?, I would be lying if I said I did not. Is there something wrong with us!!!..., I don't think so, But I think there is something really wrong with the way we learn Science in India.
The same India which was home to physicist Sir Chandra Sheaker Venkata Raman.
C.V Raman won the Nobel in physics in the year 1930 he was the first Asian to win a Nobel in the Science, also the first non-white person to win a Nobel prize in physics.
C.V Raman made this Nobel winning discovery on the 28 February 1928, Today is 7 July 2021 it has been 93 years as India kept up with C.V Raman legacy or have we forgotten innovation?.
Celebrating Science is important in our life as India cheers its glorious past and the country can’t forget it’s grim reality.Today India is focusing more on root learning than research. We do not have an environment for innovation,We don't have enough research, There aren't enough resources for research. Today Indian students are running a rat race. A child is formally introduced to science around the age of 6 or 7 it soon becomes an IQ marker, the subject he must excellent. If required take extra classes and tuitions then.Science here is not fun, it's more to do with test scores and olympiad. Students are told to embarrass “SMART LEARNING”, learn only what is required and is relevant for the college exams. When a student enters campus she becomes a part of the rat race for placements. Most Indian science students land a desk job. A decent paying job. With remote resemblance to science, their carriers are then shaped by the grids of excel sheets and their innovations are limited to PPT.
India Ranks 48 in the GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX 2020, 64th in creative output. How will India innovate when we are not even ready to take risks. Just 252.7 people get into research per million Indians but in Denmark the number is 8065.88 people per million. India spends around 0.64% of its GDP on research and development but Israel spends 4.95% of it's GDP. India spends way below the other brics nations.it spends just a little more than Mexico and Pakistan.
In 2017 FORBES published that “90% of Indian startups will fail because of lack of innovation”. Study says in 2015 India failed 1423 international patents ,Japan failed 44,235, 40 times more patents.India is lagging in innovation and this is not the India we studied about. We we’re the front runners in science. This is the land of Aryabhata, The father of astronomy, who disregarded the view that earth does not move. India is a land of charak, his book CHARAKA SAMHITA described diseases and their causes. The oldest Indian veda RIG VEDA mentions the nearly correct measurement of the speed of light; it talks about the age of the universe.
Dr Kalam said “When children are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art they develop a sense of innovation that will help produce the kind of people that society needs to take it forward"
So is India moving forward?
C.V Raman won the Nobel prize in physics in 1930 only 4 more indian have been awarded for science, None of them were or are residence of india.
Have we killed the environment of innovation?, or is it too late to reverse the trend?
Don't force science on students, science is not an IQ marker. Let Science be a passion ,not part of the rat race for jobs. India does not need more robots to work in our factory, we need people who create those robots.
