Human Resources Development: Experiences, Interventions, Strategies by T V Rao

Author:T V Rao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Published: 2014-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

STRENGTHEN THE SECONDARY-LEVEL SCIENCE EDUCATION

Secondary education is the stage where the talents of scientists and technicians can be nurtured and identified. However, in many countries secondary education has suffered severe budget cuts so that laboratories cannot be maintained, scientific equipment has not been replaced, materials for experiments are woefully inadequate. Students are merely taught about science rather than getting scientific learning. However, it is pointless to try to strengthen science education at the higher education level, a vociferously routed target in many countries, if students start off with inadequate grounding at the secondary level (Hallak, 1990).

Science requires specific facilities,

but a science laboratory is not needed in the lower grades; the experience of many countries, including the industrialised, has demonstrated that neither formal laboratories nor expensive equipment is necessary to provide satisfactory science education…. Infrastructure and advanced equipment are necessary at the upper secondary levels, of course, where contemporary approaches to science teaching integrate practical work with theory. Curriculum development is prerequisite to and predates, textbook development and the purchase of equipment. Where the curriculum and equipment are determined by separate departments, lack of coordination will cause problems (Hallak, 1990, 226–27).

Where an industrial base is strong, industry can be encouraged to manufacture and distribute science-teaching equipment. Where it is not strong, government and private sector can promote local initiatives such as centralised manufacturing and distribution as well as ad hoc institutions.

A network of resource centres can be developed to ensure access to more sophisticated facilities and to provide in-service training. Some countries have opted for setting up citywide computer centres at which students from all the schools receive instruction and which receive other community activities and adult education classes. These and other professional activities like science clubs, science associations and fairs should be encouraged.

BOX 9.6

SCIENCE EDUCATION CENTRES

In the Philippines, a Science Education Centre is attached to the university; it prepares textbook scripts and, in collaboration with the college of engineering, designs equipment. The unit actually produces a few sophisticated items in large quantities; but most equipment is produced by private manufacturers using designs approved by the Centre. In Madagascar, the Centre National de Production de Materiels Didaetiques, established in 1976, has several woodworking, metal-working, auto-mechanics, electrical and general workshops, which manufacture a wide range of equipment from local raw material. It also has training facilities to initiate teachers in the use of materials and in minor repairs and maintenance.

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