Tamil Nadu - Chennai

It’s fun for all practical purposes

— Photo: K.V. SRINIVASAN.

Learning by doing: Is the scope of practical classes in schools limited to scoring higher in examinations? A group of students working at their physics laboratory at NKT National Girls Higher Secondary School in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: For Plus-Two students, the notion of science practical classes has always been fun. In schools, it is common to see students flaunting their lab coats that would have acquired little holes and stains of chemicals by the end of the two years.

Besides fetching them marks that often boost their total score, sessions in the science laboratory prove to be a welcome change in the otherwise theory-intensive curriculum followed in schools.

“Students thoroughly enjoy the practical classes. There are specific exercises for physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, computer science and nutrition,” says T. Rajeswari, headmistress, Lady Willingdon Government Girls Higher Secondary School. A majority of the learning in most subjects, including science, is theoretical. “The practical classes in school serve as a foundation to the laboratory work they do in college,” she says, adding, “more importantly, when a student learns a concept after performing an experiment herself, the concept stays in her mind forever.”

S. Vincent, member secretary of the Tamil Nadu Council for Science and Technology, agrees. “Only when students understand the practical application of a scientific concept, they will appreciate the theory,” he says. The Council has been promoting several science programmes for school students, including the ‘young scientists programme’ where students are encouraged to take up small projects, experiment and draw their own inferences. A few engineering colleges are also partnering schools and encouraging school students to visit their labs and see how practical work is done at collegiate level.

Crescent Engineering College is among the institutions in the city which often has school students visiting, to get an idea of the scope for research in science studies later. Principal of the college V.M. Periasamy says schools need to view practical classes more seriously, and that most of them saw these classes as a mere mark-fetching tool.

“Practical classes have to be conducted very seriously at school level if students have to understand basic concepts of science,” he emphasises. He suggests that schools make it a habit to integrate simple experiments in classroom teaching, right from the lower classes.

Some schools do offer practical sessions for lower classes, but a section of students says the sessions are not really connected to the chapters covered in the textbooks. “We have a separate manual for the practical session. Those are not related to what is learnt in class,” says class IX student Avinash Sundar.

“We always look forward to the practical class. I wish there were more such sessions. For complex concepts particularly, more experiments could be included,” says V. Ranjani, a class XII student.

However, teachers feel that their packed time-table would not offer scope to include more such sessions. “Not all children can learn and work at the same pace. For slow learners, we have to spoon-feed even at the practical class so that they score enough to pass the board examination,” said the science teacher of a matriculation school.

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