A paradigm shift through NEP 2020

Like other states of the country, the J&K administration is enthusiastically pushing for a paradigm shift in the educational sector in light of NEP-2020. However, to achieve the stated goals and objectives and making education and academic journeys meaningful and relevant to the needs of life, our education system and institutions need some radical transformation. Here, I discuss a few aspects of some basic enabling conditions which are a pre-requisite for a sound foundation in context of the NEP-2020.

1. School Culture and practices:

For achieving the goals of quality science education at elementary and secondary school levels, the first and foremost requirement is the availability of proper physical, socio-cultural and psychological spaces to a child learner which is compatible to teaching-learning process and development of creative, analytical and intellectual potentials of the students.  Physical spaces, in part, are shaped and characterised by physical infrastructure, quality teachers, quality administration and management and educational resources and practices.

The creation of proper socio-cultural  and psychological spaces compatible to science education is about providing a proper environment, within and outside classroom, which is based on scientific temperament and attitudes and provides free, un-inhibited and unrestricted spaces for  activity-based teaching-learning, open culture of  exploration, challenging spirit towards the known ideas, spirit of scientific enquiries and  questioning, thinking out-of-box solutions, high order thinking challenges, and knowledge  through experimentation and practice. In order to develop the attitudes towards “Science for Society” and integrating science education for social upliftment and realising the goals of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary approaches to science education, field based activities such as visiting agriculture-horticulture forms, dairy-poultry forms, sericulture, mountains climbing, rocks exploration, industrial houses  must be given a prominent place in academic calendars of the education institutions.

In order to make a paradigm shift in educational scenario, the students from the very young age, particularly in urban areas, should be encouraged to visit villages and other zones of economic activity, made to interact with people to understand the problems in the means of production, GDP, livelihoods and daily needs which can potentially be elevated through scientific interventions, inventions and innovations. Organising of events like science melas, quiz competitions, group and panel discussions, magic shows, science exhibitions, skits and science specific cultural activities, science projects( individual and group based activities) debates and seminars, tests and assignments must find place in school curricula and time-tables. Such physical activities can be augmented by online field visits to places of economic activity, industries and places of cultural importance.

Modes of assessment must shift from descriptive mode of examinations to more objective, fun-based, activity based continuous mode of assessment where stress is on assessment of critical and analytical understanding, creative aptitudes and high order thinking. The question papers should be devised to provide a background detail of the concept in story telling manner and to check the comprehension, analytical assimilation of concepts and information -processing skills of the students, as we find in the question papers of Australian National Quiz in Chemistry.

Besides, the proper student-teacher ratio, continuous teacher training schemes, provision of scholarships, free uniforms and books to socially marginalized students, better transport facilities are also necessary for realizing the stated out-comes of NEP-2020 in Science Education

2. Infrastructure and equipment:

Physical infrastructure such as proper, adequately ventilated and air-conditioned classrooms, science laboratories, libraries and modern teaching learning gadgets, including smart boards, ICT and e-learning tools, models, sports grounds and related infra-structure are grossly lacking presently in school education system in our state and elsewhere in the country, which need to be upgraded and augmented at war-footing to realize the outcomes and goals of NEP-2022. The most limiting factor in imparting quality science education at primary and secondary level in our state is the absence of quality science laboratories, in the absence of which only one-way classroom teaching is possible leading to memory based rote-learning, instead of demonstrative and participatory science Education.

In order to make the goals of NEP 2022 achievable, the science laboratories, which must to be the central-hubs for imparting science education, need to be provided, augmented and modernized in every schools, fully equipped with required science instruments, chemical/glassware and standard safety protocols. Schemes for Mobile laboratories can be adopted and designed which can cater the laboratory needs in far-off rural areas for a period during which the permanent lab- spaces can be created.

3. Human Resource- Teaching as well as supporting staff.

Availability of quality Science teachers, trained supporting staff such as, lab instructors, laboratory assistants, lab bearers are inevitable and vital for impacting science education in the country. Hence, a concerted and consistent planning and mechanism needs to be in place to employee highly talented, knowledgeable and motivated science teachers in school education department through a highly efficient, transparent and competitive selection process. Vertical career growth and upward mobility must be accessible to quality teachers through evidence based contributions, bench marking parameters and student satisfaction ranking awards, in additional to national level recognitions and honours.

Teachers must be given opportunities to undergo and participate in  Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes , by participation in state, national and international  level workshops, seminars and conferences, mentorships and through online educational programmes to remain connected and informed with ever –emerging and latest science knowledge creation and advancement in order to avoid being redundant and obsolete. Only quality teacher training and refresher education programmes spanned over divergent, inter and intra specialized and cross domain scientific knowledge base will make it possible for teachers to provide, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary and integrated education to students based on dynamic multifaceted curriculum as envisioned by NEP-2022.

This may need the establishment of the state-of-art Teacher Training Academies at state and national level at par with IAS and NDA type academies, where teacher training, equipment handling, hands on sessions and academic administration training can be giving to teachers as continuous capacity building process.  Employing trained supporting staff like lab instructors and Lab Assistants in   school education is a prerequisite for importing quality science education, which is dismally lowest in current scheme of things in all states. This issue can be solved by initiating diploma, degree and certificate courses in science laboratory technology training by the Universities and engineering colleges and selection of such supporting staff exclusively based on such professional degrees or diploma qualifications through a open, transparent competitive process.

4. Teaching Learning Material

An immediate and radical paradigm shift in overall teaching learning process in Science Education, inclusive of curriculum and pedagogy, shall adopt to the hybrid/imbedded mode of online-offline practices, which requires a large scale hands –on- training in the use of online platforms. Besides, the school system needs to create a resource-pool for e-leaning mode of importing education such as e-modules, audio and video recordings, e-contents such as science animations, documentaries, science fiction and artwork. The students shall have   a gradual exposure at varying levels of study and programmes to fast evolving and cutting-edge tools and technologies based on coding, algorithms, machine learning, computational science tools and artificial intelligence.

For this computational resources, internet connectivity and teacher training requirements are the essential barriers currently which needs to be overcome for training students to meet the challenge of immediate future in fast changing scenarios in science education, industry and job market.  Further, book reading culture, which has largely taken a back-seat in prevalent of internet technology era, needs to be revived to achieve multidimensional personalities, which are socially conscious and culturally imbedded in society as envisioned by NEP2022. In order to achieve this, each school and educational institution should have enriched libraries and reading rooms, which house books on general literature of science, science fiction, science fun in addition to text-book and reference books. Interactive smart-boards in synergism with classic chalk-and –boards in classroom setting can making teaching more fun and excitement, in addition to enhancement of efficiency in teaching-learning process.

5. Technology Related:

One of the important focus area of NEP-2022 is to inculcate the spirit of innovations and inventions and promotion of culture of technopreneurship-entrepreneurship amongst youth in general and school students in particular, through educational intervention. The reframing of science curriculum and pedagogy from theory-oriented teaching learning to technology-oriented experimental practices,   can potentially lead to technology oriented and innovatively spirited society. The goals of this objective can be achieved with the practices such as school- industry partnerships, Internships at industries and techno-centres, student exchange programmes between institutions of higher learnings, through summer schools and winter schools and society outreach activities at Universities and other institutions of excellence in Sciences. The students at schools levels can be given hands –on training through short training programmes in recent technologies and cutting-edge research.

6. School Governance:

Currently, School Governance model is a semi-bureaucratic model like any other government department, which need to be revamped and designed in a liberal managerial model, where the administration and other stake holders all join hands in a team-like manner to achieve the stated targets of excellence, draft and implement policies, and monitor progress in an evolving and dynamic model. The teachers, administrators, students and the parents need to share the joint responsibility of day-to-day governance of the educational institutions in a responsible manner, establish refined and scientifically devised fool proof mechanism of responsibility.

This de-centralized system of governance will infuse a sense of personal responsibility and involvement, leadership skills, belongingness among all stakeholders, personal accountability at all levels and efficient conflict resolution mechanism at educational institutions. The administration, teachers, students and parents must jointly devise the development plans, perspective plans, administrative guidelines and roles through comprehensive and collaborative planning and proposals making, keeping the school-specific and community-specific requirements into consideration.

This model if implemented, with some inbuilt and imbedded safe-guards will go a long way in promoting shared leadership and governance and will define the roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders, Besides, it will also inculcate leadership and managerial skills among the students,  for any future role as science institution managers. This will require a well-planned and well-designed training programme t to import necessary skills required for such roles, besides a comprehensive code-of -conduct guidelines for such a model of governance for school institutions.

Finally, our education institutions at all levels should focus more on critical thinking, analytical skills, leadership qualities, community service, societal understanding and environmental awareness in students than mere teaching how to pass exams and prepare for competitive selection processes, through active and participatory learning activities.

I wonder if our educational institutions can make room for, besides the highly structured syllabus and curriculum based engagements, to occasionally allow students to participate in some wilderness programmes in forests and cycling expeditions to remote countryside areas, to understand nature, immediate ecosystems, history of places, complexities of life, basics of agriculture, horticulture, animal rearing etc.

to prepare them for future life. Can our educators think beyond the rigid syllabus based curriculum by way of  introducing the students, at all levels, to basics of emerging knowledge domains, disruptive technologies, innovation, entrepreneur skills, leadership capabilities and active  social service through internships and voluntary work to obtain research and evidence based knowledge and experiences. Similarly, creating and offering students on-campus part-time jobs and work experiences to run institutional services can also be a means of bolstering self-confidence and the spirit of self-reliance in students and prepares them for a better future.