post news network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 31: Under the Yusuf Hamied Inspirational Chemistry Programme (YHICP) that was kicked off in 2014, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in United Kingdom decided to groom 42 Indian educators as teacher developers (TD) who would in turn train local science teachers for better performance of their students in their respective schools.
One such TD, Vimala Oak, was on a four-day trip to Orissa recently and she visited 40 schools in Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur during the period. As part of the programme, she interacted with 124 science teachers during her visit and shared with them many tips and tricks to make their subjects seem more interesting to the students.
“Many students prefer engineering because they don’t find interest in science classes,” she said. Under the programme, she said, the motive is to make the teaching method more interactive by trying to establish a dialogue between the teachers and students during the classes.
Vimala has about 30 years of experience in research and development when she was employed with BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited). Due to her interest towards research and child development programmes, she joined RSC and has interacted with 800 teachers until now.
“Scientific research done in India has changed the way the world works; from healing and eradicating deadly diseases to understanding the universe around us. But inspite of all our glorious history, we still lack in something that has stopped us from producing scientific geniuses,” she said.
It was planned under YHICP that in the first five years of the programme, a total of 8000 teachers from rural and urban areas of India would be given training.
A total of 60 Indian students have been selected since last year after extensive examinations who would pursue their higher studies at Salters’ Institute in the UK. The institute is also a part of YHICP.
Vimala said that some state governments were also showing their interest in the programme and thus have been encouraging it. “Governments of Manipur and Chhattisgarh have provided their support to us. We are hoping that other state governments would also lend us their support.”