Making science interesting in school

AT a Physics conference at Shahjalal University in 2012, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid expressed his concern about lack of interest in science among students and said that it might lead to problems in future. On the World Day of Radio, he said Jagadish Chandra Bose was the pioneer in the field of wireless waves and facilitated global communication by making the radio. Last year, at an international physics conference at Dhaka University's Bose Centre, he remembered the contributions Professor Satyen Bose made to modern science and emphasised the need for making science education more attractive to the younger generation.
But there has been little initiative from the government to make science education interesting. The Education Policy says: “Textbooks must be attractive, easily comprehensible and full of illustrations,” for the primary level. In secondary education, science fairs and Math Olympiads will be organised “to popularise science and mathematics among students.” In higher education, “employment opportunities will be created to attract meritorious students in the study of sciences.”
But how will primary and secondary level students know about Bangali scientists like Jagadish Chandra, Satyen Bose, Prafulla Ray, Meghnad Saha, Qudrat-e-Khuda, Jamal Nazrul Islam and others if there is nothing about them in their textbooks? This lack of knowledge has deprived us of our legitimate pride and made us intellectually poor, and taken away the dreams from the minds of our children. At most, our science students can dream of nothing better than becoming doctors or engineers or IT experts -- salesmen for western businesses.
Jagadish, Prafulla, and Meghnad were born in Bangladesh and Satyen Bose taught at Dhaka University for 24 years. Rabindranath dedicated his science book 'Biswa Parichay' to Satyen Bose and wrote poems addressing Jagadish Chandra. The Nobel Laureate poet and Jagadish were close friends throughout their lives. Jagadish Chandra was the father of Bangla science fiction and Abyakto bears the imprint of his exquisite literary mind. Students' interest about science will not rise just through lamenting about it. In addition to solving the existing problems, write-ups by Bangali scientists as well as articles and stories about them should be included in our school textbooks in order to boost interest in science education among our learners.
 

The writer is Research and Publication Officer, Centre for Development Innovation and Practices (CDIP).