Curiosity in chains!

Current educational pathways are not leading to sufficiently educated students with a proper understanding of science, mathematics, geography, and other subjects. After my retirement, I visited many schools (government and private) to interact with students and inquire why most of them do not want to pursue higher education, particularly in science and engineering in college/technical institutions. Then, I truly understood the extent to which the quality of education has deteriorated in today's society. One of the major factors is the role of substandard or incompetent teachers who cause irreparable damage to society at large and the education system in particular. In the current social environment, the behaviour of many students, such as various types of superstitions and religious sentiments, shows the lack of actual scientific concepts among them. First, second, and third-rankers in every class are called intelligent, but even they lack a proper understanding and realisation of the topics. This may be attributed to the hard work of students under the supervision of home tutors to memorise everything, though exceptions are there. Many students don't even try to memorise because they know very well that it is possible to pass the exam just by copying.

Although many examples can be cited in this regard, I have highlighted a few of them. For example, many of them know that the value of π is 22/7, but 22 is the circumference of a circle and 7 is its diameter – this clarity is often absent among them. They do a lot of geometry using scales but don't know how long a scale is. Even they do not try to guess how much the length of one meter or one centimetre is. No idea what deci, centi, milli mean exactly, but they solve a lot of mathematical problems with these units. Similarly, they have memorised Newton's law, Faraday's law, various chemical reactions, colour of light, or the structure and function of living organisms, but the actual application of science is practically unknown to them. In this piquant situation, how can we expect the progress of our country if the youth does not even have a basic knowledge of the content? This is the reality today, and our government is neglecting these worse issues.

Nowadays, society has become estranged from the natural world. Many children sadly have limited opportunities to connect with and learn from the outside world and its natural state. Nature is our mother, our first teacher; perhaps the greatest lesson that she teaches us is to maintain a balance in life. Thereby, teaching and learning in natural environments encourage self-mastery through risk-taking, physical fitness, resilience, self-regulation, and student-centred discovery. Children learn better when they can experience learning, rather than hearing it read from a textbook. This worrying trend is also becoming increasingly apparent in our educational settings.

About 25 years ago, I noticed a 4-year-old child during the school admission interview. The child was asked to write upper and lower case 'A', but he was not familiar with English lowercase letters. So, instead of writing the small 'a', the 'A' was written in small form. The madam appreciated his thoughts and gave him admission. That child from that day is working as a researcher in a foreign organisation through his own efforts. Even today, there are many reports that children from villages without any home tutor have been recognised worldwide for their creative work and have made their names shine. Many scientists, artists, writers, sportsmen, and artisans were born in West Bengal, and their names are written in golden letters. But there was no pressure on them, no obligation to fulfil a goal.

To overcome this issue, during holidays, I started to take students (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th classes) on long walks around the small forest, garden, and rivulets near my village. They intelligently answer many questions by looking at the trees – such as describing the roots, stems, leaves, branches, bird’s nests, behaviour of animals, friendship among the animals, flight mechanism of birds, and many more. They happily learn from nature and write it down based on their observations and understanding. Although there are some spelling errors, I appreciate their effort to express their personal views on what is going on in nature. Being encouraged by their sincere effort to learn from nature, I have started demonstrating various experiments with "no-cost, low-cost materials" in my village Moutorh, Purulia, West Bengal, inspired by Samar Bagchi, former director of BITM Kolkata, who was a pioneer in popularising science among teachers and students. After demonstrating one experiment, the students started pleading to know the reason. I gave them the task to read the book, think, and find out the reasons for themselves. Surprisingly, now they have really become inquisitive and started asking for materials to conduct experiments by reading their textbooks. Although only a handful of students have come forward in this matter, I could easily guess the reason. Most of the boys and girls waste a lot of time playing various games on mobile phones. They are so addicted and obsessed with mobile phones that their own thinking is being blocked, and their dreams are being destroyed.

Another reason is that parents still think that attending coaching classes is necessary to get good marks in class and success in competitive examinations, but it is the death knell for innovation and creative thinking. At the same time, the curiosity—the driving force of learning and discovery—among them is being hindered. Creative thinking is not the gift of nature; it is accessible to anyone who nurtures a curious mind.

Many parents talk about their helplessness and the impossible stubbornness of their children, but they don't think about it, are they getting real happiness in the school or tutoring their children? But I can say from my own experience that through games, with the help of magic, through funny stories, and with the help of various models, they eagerly try to learn everything on their own. For this reason, they should not be confined within the walls of the school, but they should be exposed to nature, informed about the subtle roles of science in everyday life. Only then will the learning process become enjoyable for the students.

Views expressed are personal