“Jignyasa”: A Unique Experiment to Improve the

Quality of Public Education

Seva Bharathi (Telangana)

2

Indian Public Education: A Summary

The Indian public (government) school system is entirely supported by the

respective state governments. The teachers are trained educators who are recruited

after passing through various formal training programs. The schools are segregated,

with different facilities for girls and boys. The schools follow a pre-set curriculum

designed by educators of the respective state in which the school is located.

Unfortunately, the quality of education imparted at government schools has much

room for improvement. Some of the issues impacting teaching at government schools

include:

Large student-teacher ratios

Cramped class rooms

Complete absence of science laboratories

Inadequate libraries

Over emphasis on textbook teaching and concepts

According to the govt. sources in India 13.3 Lakhs of schools are there and out of

it 80% schools are govt. or semi govt. or small private schools. Given the large

number of children enrolled in government schools, there is a negative impact on

society at large due to the sub-standard primary and secondary education imparted to

these children.

One of the main deficiencies in government run schools is the absence of any

science laboratories on the premises. This deprives the children of any exposure to

real-world scientific knowledge. Instead the children can only look at a static photo

in a government textbook. This has the secondary negative impact of reducing the

children’s interest in science.

3

“Jignyasa”: An Introduction

Seva Bharathi (http://www.sevabharathi.org) is a pan-Indian NGO with

various activities in the fields of education, health awareness, disaster relief, and child

welfare. They have recently taken up a new initiative “Jignyasa”, which is focused

on improving the quality of education imparted to children in government schools.

“Jignyasa” exposes children to the practical aspect of education by organizing visits

to schools by a mobile science laboratory.

Seva Bharathi started Jignyasa with an aim to give Secondary class students a

chance to learn science by performing experiments, thus giving them not only the

pleasure of “learning by doing” but also rendering the subject enjoyable and easy to

understand.

The Jignyasa will help the children in following things.

Hands – on and Interactive.

Children and students exposed to new ideas and methods.

Link to school syllabus.

Peer -to-peer instruction.

Improve Critical and qualitative thinking

Improve Experimental and data analysis skills.

Develops reporting skills (Oral and written).

The mobile science laboratory team conducts a demonstration of scientific

experiments, which through their visual impact, energizes and encourages the students

to explore the scientific process further. The experiments are conducted by trained

technicians who are able to demonstrate the specific experiment as well as explain the

theoretical basis for the experiment. The experiments are conducted inside one of the

classrooms in the schools on a pre-arranged schedule. Some of the experiments

demonstrated include:

Effects of magnetism on iron particles

Reaction of Sodium metal with water

Generation of hydrogen sulphide gas due to chemical reaction

4

Presently Seva Bharathi running one mobile science lab under “Jignyasa” project.

Present Statistics:

No. of Schools covering/month - 40

No. of visits/school/month - 1

Total no. of students benefited - 12000

Seva Bharathi is determined to extend the scope of the “Jignyasa” program to

cover more schools and more than one visit per school. To extend the scope of the

program, they are planning for multiple teams, with one van each.

The team is travelling to each location in a van, with all the lab equipment and

materials required for the experiments.

The above photos depict a typical lab session. This specific session was conducted at

a Government girl’s high school in Kukatpally.

Contact details:

S Narsimha Murthy

9701914349