| |9 JUNE 2021HIGHERReviewAll these can be summarised as "pursuit of intelligence'.The term `foundation' indicates the period before the start of the higher education. Notably, secondary educa-tion. We have seen and experienced the quantum jump in complexity a student faces while transitioning from pri-mary to secondary education classes. May times, a student who has secured 80% marks in 10th grade barely manag-es to pass through the 12th grade. This is not uncommon. Why such things happen? What is wrong? Let's try to anal-yse and arrive at the answers.The languages (the grammar part), science and mathe-matics are the foundation courses in the school years. Giv-ing the correct emphasis on these subjects without over-burdening the students and maintaining their interest is a Herculean task, if not impossible. "Learning by doing" which is also called `interactive, experiential learning' in the EdTech jargon, is one such proven method. For many years, Indian education system was reduced to the level of a "clerk producing factory", but things are looking up now.The flattening of the world, which happened with the advent of the internet and affordable computers, provided a level playing field for all those who wanted to `play and compete' with the best in the world. India, with its demo-graphic, has to catch up. Number of students far exceed the seats available in the universities- both local and on foreign lands. The result is the fierce competition for admissions.The academic institutions devised various types of en-trance tests to screen the applicants. This resulted in the explosion of coaching classes where memorising a concept was more important than its understanding. The other problem was the language. With most competitive exams conducted in English, a large portion of the students missed this opportunity. Knowledge is nobody's privilege. One cannot keep a majority of students out of the entrance tests just for the language reason. So, necessary amends were made. And to take care of the memorising issue, more ob-jective questions and MCQs were introduced. This gave a somewhat level playing field to the students.But the wider question is, why only those who want to pursue higher education in certain Centre of Excellence colleges have to have their concepts clear? Why not all stu-dents study the way things are to be studied? Once this is achieved, the other will automatically follow. Laying of proper foundation to kindle and sustain the interest of the students is of utmost importance. In this en-deavour of foundation laying, more the number of senses involved during the study, the easier it becomes to under-stand the concept. To achieve this, the classroom teaching is augmented by the incorporation of laboratory practices wherever possible. But in a wide and diverse country like India, both the classrooms and laboratories are in a per-petual short supply. If both are available, the appropriate faculty may not be available. One of the ways to overcome these shortcomings is to go for the blended teaching. Here, the normal classroom and lab practices are aided by inter-active, 3D stereoscopic content. In fact, this not only aug-ments the classroom and laboratory sessions, but opens up new vistas hitherto unavailable or unthinkable. When one interacts with a complex system using one's own hands, in cyberspace, the results are striking. The New Education Policy (NEP) lays much impor-tance on Experiential learning. And what could be better, quicker and cheaper than doing that in the cyberspace?Several pilot projects are initiated by various State Gov-ernments to achieve this goal. The pandemic and the ensu-ing lockdowns gave ample proof for off the school campus teaching. Now it is time to solidify formally in a regular school curriculum.An enlightened community of students is an asset for any country. This community has the power to change the destiny of a nation and a group of nations, called the universe. This may also indirectly prove the belief of Fred Hoyle on the Intelligent Universe.To prepare the future generations for higher and high-er level of learning, right foundations should be laid in the formative years of secondary schooling when a student's curiosity and awareness has just begun to rise. An enlightened community of students is an asset for any country. This community has the power to change the destiny of a nation and a group of nations, called the universe
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