Brand ambassador for science to attract students?

Chennai, March 16 (IANS) With student interest in science subjects waning fast, due largely to poor teaching and absence of lucrative career opportunities, it is time to take some drastic measures like appointing a brand ambassador, Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) officials said.

"A young scientist as a brand ambassador is certainly an interesting idea that could be explored," ISCA's president-elect K.C. Pandey told IANS on the sidelines of a press meet here Monday.

The only "brand ambassador" for science and technology that India now has and who fires the imagination of school children is former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Agreeing with Pandey, Sri Venkateswara University's former vice chancellor R.Ramamurthy said that perhaps Nobel laureates of Indian origin could be looked at as possible brand ambassadors.

When it was noted that they were not in India, he said: "Perhaps we should identity 'icons' for different regions and different scientific streams."

The officials, however, agreed that glamourising science or forcing students to study science will boomerang as scientists need perseverance and patience and there is no short cut to success in this field.

Citing the next Indian Science Congress' (ISC) core theme "Quality Education and Excellence in Scientific Research in Indian Universities", Pandey said the quality of science teaching has gone down tremendously in the country and in particular in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Compounding the problem is that students are disinterested in studying science and are lured by other courses like management and software engineering.

"We are not going to get good scientists in the years to come. It should be of great concern for the policy makers," Pandey told reporters here.

He said a session in the Science Congress will focus on making science teaching interesting to the students, and strongly rejected the idea of forcing science subjects on students at the college level.

"Students should be attracted to study science. If you don't have interest, then you will be a failure," he said.