Taking Legislative Action

Hey viewers,

We're back with another post this week. Sharing with you all the whitepaper that our founder, Aditya Narayan, recently submitted to the MLAs & Panchayat Representatives of Bangalore Ward 83.

You know our motto: One step at a time, one action at a time, one child at a time and we can make a million wishes come true!

This whitepaper is our next step to ensure that every child, regardless of socioeconomic status has access to the education they deserve.

Sharing an excerpt from the White Paper below:

Contents:

1. Executive Summary

2. Challenges in STEM Education in Government Schools

3. Effective STEM Interventions: A Literature Review

4. Alignment with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020

5. Recommendations for Policy Implementation within the NEP framework

6. Potential Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

7. Project Yantrikta: A Case Study

8. Citations and References

Executive Summary

This white paper reviews the challenges and proposes avenues for improvement to realise a more effective implementation of STEM education in Indian government schools in view of the NEP 2020. While the policy framework has become more progressive, significant barriers do yet persist. This includes insufficient infrastructure, lack of access to modern and novel technologies, inadequately trained teachers and teacher volunteers, systemic gender and cultural biases. Only 29.37% government secondary schools have functional science laboratories and less than 24.2% with access to the internet again restricts experiential learning.

The paper, in this regard, proposes an intervention strategy involving the creation of STEM laboratories, digital resources, teacher training programs, and partnership engagement with local communities and industries. Furthermore, it advocates for project-based and research-based learning within curricula to be supported with innovative teaching approaches, and locally/culturally relevant STEM content to ensure student engagement. Post the emphasis on the challenges faced, the paper presents a literature review that examines successful interventions taken up in other parts of the world and suggests country-specific approaches that are tailored to the Indian context. Further, alignment with NEP 2020 aims has been done on aspects related to holistic and hands-on learning, bridging the digital divide, and improving the quality of educators. Challenges that may arise, like funding constraints, inefficient resource allocation, and resistance to change, have been identified, including strategic mitigation measures. The suggested interventions in the paper have been included to ensure that equal opportunities for quality education in STEM fields can be availed by students across the country regardless of socio-economic status, gender or caste, enabling the youth to rise and meet the demands of a rapidly changing world economy.  Project Yantrikta provides a case example of effectiveness on how targeting the interventions toward student engagements and learning outcomes in STEM may work.

To go over the entire white paper, click on the link below!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yvxiLep2Q9Sm_nUR43KK6SlYO5uZfmcz/view?usp=sharing