Question : INNOVATION OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

(a) whether the Government has taken any effective steps for the innovation of science education in the country; and

(b) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SHASHI THAROOR)

(a) & (b) The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) make efforts towards the popularization of science in the States/UTs and organizes science exhibitions and other related activities. The NCERT has undertaken a number of steps to improve the quality of science education at the school level namely the development of activity-based textbooks, laboratory manuals, exemplar problems, source books on assessment etc. It has also developed ten innovative science & mathematics kits for different stages of school education to facilitate practical work in school. The NCERT has also been organizing several teacher training programmes on the use of these materials. To encourage activity based teaching learning process in the classroom, three publications, namely: “Science is Doing” for class VI, “Learning by Doing” for class VII and “Learning by Doing” for class VIII have been published by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), to be used as supplementary material for the teaching of science. The CBSE affiliated schools are instructed to provide facilities of well- equipped science laboratories for the conduct of practical work in the schools, apart from the appointment of qualified teachers for teaching science subjects.