New initiatives to make studying Chemistry fun for school students

NEW DELHI : India is one of the nations that have a large young population vying for technical expertise. However, there has been limited focus on chemical science education at the school level. The teachers blame lack of infrastructure, limited awareness of interesting teaching techniques and insufficient funds as some of the reasons that obstruct the students from developing a scientific temper.
The India chapter of Royal Society of Chemistry in its second phase of the initiative has launched Yusuf Hamied Inspirational Science Programme . This will help in introducing interesting modules of science learning in schools. The Society has partnered with educational department of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Assam and Andhra Pradesh to have an innovative approach for teaching and learning of chemistry. “The project will boost excitement and increase the interest in chemistry, as a subject and career option. By providing new teaching resources to teachers, this programme helps accelerate interest in pupils study chemistry in higher education,” says Robert Parker, chief executive officer, Royal Society of Chemistry.

The new programme will focus on making resources available to the teachers in local languages, develop training modules covering topics and experiments beyond the textbooks and generate content on the mobile phone.

“We have partnered with universities and institutes such as IITs to deliver these programmes across India. The teacher training programme is open to all the teachers who are interested in learning new methods and techniques and not limited to government schools,” adds Parker.

“Government schools in India lack in funds and facilities. Many teachers are trying their best to change it through their passion and commitment. However, they are unable to upgrade their teaching skills. After being a part of the RSC teacher training programme in 2018, I have been introduced to active learning strategies to teach pure sciences, classroom management and conducting experiments with possible simple substitutions,” says Janaki Kolisetti, teacher at Chaitanya Vidyalaya, Bangalore.