By Dominick Rodrigues

“The need of the hour is to inculcate scientific temper in people, especially in children, and educators must adopt creative methods to engage children in mathematics, alongside bridging gender divide in STEM-related employment and updating engineering curricula to ride the data science revolution,” Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said recently while virtually inaugurating the New Residential Wing of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences IMSc), Chennai.

Noting that India produces the highest percentage of women STEM graduates globally (about 40 percent), he said their share in STEM jobs in India is very low at 14 per cent and needs to be improved, besides under-representation in post-graduate and doctoral studies also needing to be rectified expeditiously.

“The Government’s efforts in improving girl students’ numbers in IITs went up from barely 8 percent in 2016 to nearly 20 percent now. We must celebrate our women scientists and create role models for the girl child in the field of science.” he said while lauding the Department of Science & Technology’s ‘Women Scientists Program’ as an encouraging initiative for women to take up careers in science and maths.

“With data changing the way business is done, we must remain relevant to current demands of industry and look beyond our traditional engineering curriculum to equip our young graduates with new skill-sets, Naidu said in urging for more technical courses in regional languages amidst proliferation of distance education courses offered by the national institutes like IITs.

Stressing the importance of making science education available in local languages, the Vice President said that it will help students in understanding the subject better and will help in innovation. Stating that no language should be ‘imposed or opposed,’ he called upon the people to learn as many languages as possible but give primacy to the mother tongue.

Praising scientists’ discovery of the indigenous Covid-19 vaccine as a “big leap in science” for India, the Vice President highlighted respect for nature by stating “Climate change is real and its negative impacts will affect our lives. We need to live in harmony with nature and adopt a healthy lifestyle by practicing Yoga and eating properly cooked & nutritious food.”

Naidu also highlighted youngsters’ overuse of mobile phones causing unnecessary distraction and children intimidated by mathematics, besides schools needing activities like Yoga, gardening and social work in their curriculum. Educators should substitute the practice of rote memorization with creative methods and hands-on activities to make children friendly with numbers, he said.

The Vice-President suggested that provisions of the New Education Policy should be fully capitalised and pedagogical changes be brought into primary education, while a strong foundational STEM be complemented by encouraging children to take up careers in science and the private sector partnering with academic institutes to strengthen STEM research.

The Vice President appreciated the efforts of IMSc in furthering quality fundamental research, particularly its involvement in India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) –the mega-science project. He expressed confidence that this ambitious project will elevate India’s global position as a leader in scientific research.

Tamil Nadu Minister for Higher Education, K.P. Anbalagan, Prof. V. Arvind, Director, IMSc, Dr. Arun Kumar Bhaduri, Director, IGCAR, Dept. Of Atomic Energy, Kalpakkam, Smt. Selvi Apoorva, Principal Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department, Tamil Nadu, S Vishnu Prasad, Registrar, IMSc, students and staff were present on the occasion.