The structure and development of all modern societies are deeply influenced by the knowledge of natural sciences and their applications. Science Education plays an important role in creating scientific temper and generating wealth through science-based technologies; hence, science education across the globe is given huge importance.
Developed countries in spite of being very successful in science and technology keep on working at making science education more attractive for young people so that their citizens maintain interest and curiosity about the world they live in, and also to meet the future challenges in health, energy, global warming and many other critical areas. When it comes to fostering research and development, richer countries have an advantage as they are at the forefront in generating new knowledge, but they are not sitting on their laurels and continue to invest heavily in research and development to continue to invest heavily in research and development to continue to be at the forefront in invention and innovation. It is now up to countries like India and China to embrace science and technology to create a scientific and secular temper and also to create a skilled workforce which is competitive at an international level in research and development.
Science Education in India is suffering both at the teaching level due to faulty pedagogy and at the research level due to lack of interdisiciplinarity and below threshold funding. Our problems in teaching are further compounded by lack of broad-based education at the undergraduate level. Natural science encompass both the physical sciences containing subjects like physics, chemistry, geology and the biological sciences which have been further split in to subgroups like zoology, botany, microbiology and biochemistry.
A learner can specialize at the Master’s or doctoral level, however, every student studying natural science needs to develop a broad feel of both biological sciences needs to develop a broad feel of both biological sciences containing subjects like physics, chemistry, geology and the biological science which have been further split in to subgroups like zoology, botany, microbiology and biochemistry. A learner can specialize at the Master’s or doctoral level, however, every student studying natural sciences needs to develop a brad feel of both biological A reasonable knowledge of mathematics and computational skills is essential for all the areas of natural sciences to field of science. A recent set of recommendation by the three major science academies of India have rightly suggested broad-based four-year undergraduate science degree to overcome the deficiencies of the current degree programmes.