|
Quest
Spirit of inquiry
ASHOK R CHANDRAN
|
The P.T. Bhaskara Panicker Memorial Science exams are different. Conducted by Sasthra in Kerala, it is unique.
|
Painting competition at the science festival in Ernakulam.
Every October, students in Kerala, enthusiastically participate in the P. T. Bhaskara Panicker Memorial Science Exam for Children. This is an exam with a difference. The exam is perhaps unique in India's educational landscape for three reasons: its aim, content, and organisation.
"Our objective is to encourage the spirit of inquiry. And develop self-study skills," says teacher V. R. V. Ezhome, key organiser and leader of the Kannur-based Social Action group for Science, Technology and Humanity in Rural Areas (Sasthra).
In 1989, dissatisfied with the education system that emphasised learning by rote, Sasthra started summer schools in rural Kannur and neighbouring districts, where children attended classes on poetry, painting, music, mathematics and grammar.
The Science Exam was initially held to develop the habit of reading . The idea was born because of one man — P. T. Bhaskara Panicker.
PTB, doyen of Kerala's science literacy movement and a sought-after editor of Encyclopaediae, set the first question paper. He also enlisted the support of voluntary associations in central and southern Kerala to organise the exam in their regions. Since his death in 1997, the examination continues in his memory.
Like the exam, its organisation is also unconventional. The question paper is set by Sasthra and delivered to schools through a network of voluntary groups working on education and related themes. These organisations — like KERDA in Alappuzha, Asha in Thrissur, Seva Mandir in Kozhikode, Aarshabharat in Wayanad — co-ordinate activities at the district-level.
Students have one month to research and submit answers in notebooks.
Evaluation is done by a teacher of the school, or by college students, bank officials, and other volunteers. In each school, two students are awarded prizes, and to reduce bias, one person assesses all the answer-scripts of a particular school. District winners compete at the State level for a gold medal given by the Parassinikkadavu temple in Kannur.
It supplements conventional tests and fills a gap in our education system. In the wider public sphere, without relying on high-voltage public relations or management jargon, it displays the power of civil society to intervene constructively. P. T. Bhaskara Panicker demonstrated it in 1990. Dozens of volunteers he inspired, do it year after year.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Quest
|
