Nexus of Good: Envisioning concepts

Gadchiroli, notorious for naxal activities and in the remote part of Maharashtra, has a literacy rate of 74.4 per cent and an overall urban population of just 11 per cent. Given its relatively lower levels of development, it has been classified as an Aspirational District by the NITI Aayog. Nearly 38.07 per cent of the population is tribal, composed primarily of the Madia and Gond tribes which are also classified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

In 2010, the school dropout rate in Gadchiroli was 34 per cent with the blocks of Dhanora, Etapalli, Bhamragad, Korchi and Aheri being worst affected. The Tribal Department and the government had so far envisioned formal conventional education as an important solution for the upliftment of the youth and the tribal society in general. However, given the lack of early education in the tribal population, it became very difficult for a tribal child to learn through conventional methods. Hence, visual learning and learning-by-doing (experiment) was seen as an essential approach to improve the learning levels of the tribal students. It was felt that science education was one of the best ways to improve the visual learning faculties of students.

Steps taken

Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) is a minibus imaginatively designed to accommodate storage for lab apparatus, audio-visual equipment, laptops, scientific concept models and an uninterruptible power supply. The MSL is capable of conducting about 80 experiments related to Physics, Chemistry and Biology (PCB). Seeing and performing these experiments with the help of MSL could help students comprehend PCB concepts better.

A unique feature of MSL in Gadchiroli was its ability to provide exposure to students on non-conventional school topics like climate change, robotics and astronomy. The MSL could achieve this feat with the help of equipment like telescopes, planispheres, weight on planet charts etc. to spur students' interest in astronomy. To spark curiosity about machines and robots, the MSL could provide special robot-building kits that would give students hands-on robot building experience. With exposure to such unconventional yet highly relevant topics, students would be more willing to follow the unconventional education path.

The MSL team comprised three teachers and one driver. The MSL was stationed in Bhamragad Tehsil and from there it travelled to each Ashram school. The MSL stayed at each school for a week to teach concepts and demonstrate experiments and at the end of the week the MSL travelled to a new Ashram school. This cycle continued until all 16 Ashram schools were covered. The MSL took approximately four months to cover all schools and after four months the cycle will again start with a new set of experiments. During its four-month cycle, the MSL travelled approximately 800 km covering 16 Ashram schools covering three blocks of Bhamragad, Etapalli and Dhanora.

Outcomes

• Around 2,100 children (56 per cent of them being female students) got access to state-of-the-art laboratory material in physics, chemistry and biology that their schools are currently lacking, helping them be better prepared for the experimental portion of the examination for their 10th and 12th board exams; hands-on experience will spark curiosity.

• Under Project Vigyan, 56 per cent of students benefiting under this project are female, thereby providing special emphasis on girl child education.

• Increased interest in science beyond just the regular school subjects to topics like astronomy and robotics; children will also be able to understand the applications of science in a broader context beyond just classroom education.

• The mobile science laboratory allowed children to engage with the Tribal department and their schools in a more meaningful way, helping to build institutional and community trust in a district otherwise marred by Naxal violence and left-wing extremism.

Overall, around 2,100 students from class 8th to 12th studying in these remote 16 schools got access to state-of-the-art laboratory material in physics, chemistry and biology that their schools are currently lacking, helping them be better prepared for the experimental portion of their 10th and 12th board exams, also providing them with an opportunity to explore career options in STEM-related fields, by sparking curiosity in them through hands-on experience with the MSL. Through increased interest in science beyond just regular school subjects to topics like astronomy and robotics, the children were able to understand applications of science in a broader context beyond just classroom education, thereby gaining the ability to question and understand events around them through a scientific lens. The introduction of an activity-based curriculum on climate change provided the necessary impetus for developing the right consciousness in students at an early age, which becomes even more important given that 67 per cent of the total area of Gadchiroli is forested. This innovative work aims to change the perspective of the community towards education by making it more application based and helping to nurture role models for future generations. MSL aims to intensively target these students by helping them co-create a worldview different from their traditional point of view while attempting to create an impactful new generation of curious scientists and rationalists in these significantly remote blocks of Gadchiroli.

Scaling up

The Mobile Science Laboratory is a wonderful example of Nexus of Good. The model put in place by this young IAS officer, Shubham Gupta can be scaled up to include all identified schools with low learning levels to impart hands-on teaching based on live models and spark curiosity in the minds of the children as well as inculcate a scientific temperament. Moreover, this would be a much cost-effective mechanism as compared to setting up individual multi-science labs in each school and also provide the advantage of skilled teachers specialised in the content as well as pedagogy.

Views expressed are personal