GUWAHATI, Oct 23: A report on “Regional Plan and Status of Science Education in Schools in North East Region (NER)”, released on October 18 last at the NEDFi House in Guwahati by Ministry of DoNER Joint Secretary, J K Sinha highlighted the need for improving teaching and learning of science and mathematics at the schools in the eight states of the NER.
The report identifies the priorities on which decisions have to be taken by the respective state governments for implementation of the proposed regional plan. The study for the report was carried out by NEDFi with the support of IIT Guwahati and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (HBCSE TIFR).
As part of the study, an assessment test in science and mathematics was administered to 5620 upper primary and secondary students from 119 schools, located in 47 districts in all the states of the NER.
The findings were presented at a regional workshop, attended by all stakeholders, including members of RMSA, SSA, SCERT, DERT, Directorate of Secondary Education and Board of Secondary Education from all the eight states, NEC and Assam State Technology & Environment Council.
The report also suggests steps for improvement of student performance in the upper primary and high school levels, improved utilisation and maintenance of existing facilities, such as laboratories, libraries and computers, besides raising public awareness.
Proposed strategies to achieve these goals include implementation of activity based teaching-learning focussed on the development of concepts and real life applications through experiments and visual approaches and IT applications, evaluation of existing textbooks on various parameters, exposure visits, ensuring availability of science and mathematics teachers, regular evaluation of teachers’ training needs, tie up by state governments with IIT Guwahati/ HBCSE.
It is hoped that the study would be a source of reference for stakeholders involved in implementation of schemes and policies on development of science and mathematics education in the North East.
