Vice-President M Hamid Ansari on Dec 14, 2008 called upon scientific institutions, suffering from paucity of young scientists, to attract young minds to the domain by igniting interest in basic sciences.
Delivering the Golden Jubilee Lecture, after releasing the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Centenary Commemorative Postal Stamps in Bangalore, he said ''inspiration in teaching and creation of role models are important to attact young minds.'' ''There seems to be a disconnect here at two levels - between senior teachers and undergraduates and teaching and researchers. The net result is that science student is deprived of contact with sources of inspiration that may fire his or her imagination,'' he felt.
He said methodology of teaching should change. ''Nearly 50 per cent of school students fail in Mathematics and science. What is needed is a culture of experiment-based learning. This would also involve re-training of teachers. This should be done at once,'' he said.
He said it was worrying that there was high level of vacancies in Universities. A UGC survey showed the vacancy level was as high as 51 per cent. The situation was more depressing in state Universities where almost 90 per cent of students were enrolled.
''Academic administrators attribute this to partly the poor quality of candidates. If so it adds to the problem of quality that plagues many institutions of higher education,'' he said.
Mr Ansari said the national count of scientific innovations and patents were inadequate due to lack of linkage between research institutions and the industry. ''Had our industry done enough for research and development ? Our modest performance is not due to lack of inventive genius. When one in ten patent owner in the US is an Indian name, why this is not happening in India,'' he asked.
''Given the requirements, capacity building in science is the need of the hour. Only this can sustain the technological advancement, which is important to national development,'' he said.
Lauding the IISc for its century long service, he said ''postage stamps are nation's tribute to an institution of rare eminence. IISc stood tall amidst institutions of excellence and had earned the right to celebrate its centenary.''
UNI
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