Current educational pathways are not leading to sufficiently educated students with proper understanding of science, mathematics, geography and other subjects. After my retirement, I visited many schools (government and private) to interact with the students and to enquire why most of them do not want to pursue higher education particularly in science and engineering in college/technical institutions.

It is thus that I have truly understood the extent to which the quality of education has deteriorated in today’s society. One of the major factors is the role of sub-standard or incompetent teachers that causes irreparable damage to society at large and the education system in particular. In the current social environment, the behavior of many students – such as belief in various types of superstitions and religious sentiments – shows the lack of actual scientific concepts among them. First, second and third rankers in every class are called intelligent, but even they lack proper understanding of the topics.

Their success may be attributed to the hard work of students under supervision of a home tutor to memorize everything, although exceptions may be there. Many students don’t even try to memorize because they know very well that it is possible to pass the exam just by copying. Although many examples can be cited in this regard, I have highlighted a few of them. For example, many of them know that the value of p is 22/7, but 22 is the circumference of a circle and 7 is its diameter – this clarity is often absent among them.

They do a lot of geometry using scales, but do not know how long a scale is. They do not try to guess the length of one meter or one centimeter. They have no idea what deci, centi and milli mean exactly but solve a lot of mathematical problems with these units. Similarly, they have memorized Newton’s law, Faraday’s law, various chemical reactions, colour of light or the structure and function of living organisms but actual application of science is practically unknown to them. In this piquant situation, how can we expect the progress of our country if the youth does not even have basic knowledge of the content.

This is the reality today and our government is neglecting these issues. Nowadays, society has become estranged from the natural world. Many children sadly have limited opportunities to connect with and learn from the outside world and its natural state despite knowing that Nature is our mother, our first teacher, and perhaps the greatest lesson that she teaches us is to maintain a balance in life. Teaching and learning in natural environments encourages self-mastery through risk taking, physical fitness, resilience, self-regulation, and student-centred discovery. Children learn better when they can experience learning, rather than hearing it read from a textbook.

This worrying trend is also becoming increasingly apparent in our educational settings. About 25 years back, I noticed a four-year-old child during the school admission interview; the child was asked to write upper and lower case ‘A’. He was not familiar with English lowercase letters. So instead of writing the small ‘a’, the ‘A’ was written in a smaller size. The teacher appreciated his thought and gave him admission.

That child of that day is working as a researcher in a foreign organization with his own efforts. Even today, there are many reports that children from the village without any home tutor have been recognized all over the world for their creative work and have made their names shine. Many scientists, artists, writers, sportsmen and artisans were born in West Bengal, whose names are written in golden letters; But there was no pressure on them, there was no obligation to fulfill the goal.

To overcome this issue, during holidays I started to take students (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th classes) on long walks around the small forest, garden and rivulets near my village. They intelligently answered many questions by looking at the trees – such as describing the roots, stems, leaves, branches, bird’s nest, behaviour of animals, friendship among them, flight mechanism of birds and many more. They happily learnt from nature and wrote it down based on their observations and understanding.

Although there were some spelling errors, I appreciated their effort of expressing their personal views on what is going on in nature. Encouraged by their sincere effort to learn from nature. I have started to demonstrate various experiments with “no cost, low-cost materials” in my village Moutorh, Purulia, West Bengal inspired by Dr Samar Bagchi, former director of BITM Kolkata, who was the pioneer in popularising science among teachers and students.

After observing one experiment, students started pleading to know the reason. I gave them the task of reading the book, thinking and finding out reasons for themselves. Surprisingly, now they have really become inquisitive and started asking for materials to conduct experiments reading their textbooks. Although only a handful of students have come forward in this matter, I could easily guess the reason.

Most of the boys and girls waste a lot of time playing various games on mobile phones. They are so addicted and obsessed with the mobile that their own thinking is being blocked. The dream is being destroyed. Another reason is that parents still think that attending a coaching class is necessary to get good marks in class and success in competitive examinations. But it is the death knell for innovation and creative thinking.

At the same time the curiosity – the driving force of learning and discovery – among them is being hindered. Creative thinking is not a gift of nature; it is accessible to anyone who nurtures a curious mind. Many parents talk about their helplessness and the impossible stubbornness of their children, but they don’t think about it?

Are they getting real happiness in school or by tutoring their children? I can say from my own experience that through games, with the help of magic, through funny stories, and with the help of various models, they eagerly try to learn everything on their own. For this reason, they should not be confined within the walls of the school, but should be exposed to nature. Be informed about the subtle roles of science in everyday life. Only then will the learning process become enjoyable for the students.

(The writer is former Senior Scientist, Central Pollution Control Board)