Inspire Award programme has not yielded the desired results
Naveen Prasad Alex with his project on Butterflies at the Inspire Science Exhibition held at Government Model HSS in Kozhikode on Saturday. (Photo: DC)
KOZHIKODE: The Inspire Award programme (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) by the Department of Science and Technology, to attract talented students to science and research-oriented careers, has not yielded the desired results. Under the project, each student, selected from class 6 to 10, will get an amount of Rs 5,000 for making a project and transporting it to the repective venues. However, many students who were selected under the scheme skipped the exhibition after availing of the amount.
In many schools, the authorities also failed to give due attention to the scheme. At the recently held primary-level Inspire Science Exhibition for students from Kozhikode, Malappuram and Wayanad districts, out of the 323 registrations, only 233 students participated, which means the department incurred a loss of Rs 4.5 lakh.
“Though we had given notice that all selected students should participate, many students were absent at the exhibition. Such moves from students actually discourage the aim of the project,” said Kozhikode Deputy Director of Education Dr Gireesh Cholayil.
He added that there was no system at present to recover money from students who had skipped the presentation.
“The award money is directly released to the students and teachers have no role in it except to guide them. Giving a portion of the amount at first and the rest after the
exhibition would be an effective way in tackling the issue”, said Reetha Thomas, Deputy Headmistress, Mar Thoma HSS, Chungathara.
Another shocking factor is the apathy of school authorities in nominating students for the award. When 247 students from Kozhikode were selected for the Inspire Award, from Malappuram it was just 27 and Wayanad, 49.
Though the nomination process is very simple, statistics show that school heads are not ready even for the nomination, thereby depriving students a chance to excel in research.
( Source : dc )
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