IIT Madras targets reaching 50,000 Govt Schools by 2026 through its Science Popularization Program in Vernacular Languages

Being provided free of cost since 2015, this initiative has already reached 9,193 Rural Government schools & distributed 3,20,702 books to students in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal

CHENNAI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is targeting reaching another 50,000 Government School Students by 2026 Period in seven States through its initiative to popularise science and provide career guidance in vernacular languages to Government School Students.

This outreach initiative is being provided free of cost with the objective being to motivate students to take up careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The Institute has distributed 3,20,702 books to 9,193 rural and Government schools in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Schools and students who are interested in participating can register through the links on this page – https://biotech.iitm.ac.in/Faculty/CNS_LAB/outreach.html

This initiative is being coordinated by Prof. V. Srinivas Chakravarthy, Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, IIT Madras. Prof. Srinivasa Chakravarthy has also written/translated about 70 popular science books into Telugu mainly targeting high school children.

Highlighting the need for such initiatives, Prof. V. Srinivas Chakravarthy, Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, IIT Madras, said, “Popular science serves as a bridge, translating complex scientific concepts into a language that makes it more accessible to a broader audience. It allows individuals without a scientific background to engage with and appreciate the beauty and importance of scientific discoveries.”

Prof. V. Srinivas Chakravarthy added, “We are very happy to say that we were able to reach 9,193 rural and government schools and we were able to distribute 3,20,702 books to the students. Currently, we are able to reach out to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. I take this opportunity to thank IIT Madras, IIT Madras alumni and all the donors who have been instrumental in supporting this cause. We are also happy and delighted to see hundreds of letters and emails from the students and teachers who are actively reading our books and participating in our initiatives. The need for these activities is so high for our school students in India and what we are doing is just a beginning.”

The key activities undertaken through initiative include:

Ø Popular Science books are translated to vernacular languages and are distributed to Government school students

Ø Provide Career Guidance to students in Vernacular languages

Ø Motivate students on careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) through science experiments and inspirational sessions

With financial support from IIT Madras and CSR partners, Prof. V. Srinivas Chakravarthy and his team have published and distributed free popular science books to rural and government schools. Over the three years, this effort had been expanded to Hindi-speaking States as well.

As part of this initiative, the school students go through a free career guidance assessment called ‘My Choice My Future’ (MCMF), a tool developed by faculty and alumni of IIT Madras in partnership with BodhBridge. The MCMF tool is a simple career guidance assessment that provides detailed insights. This online career guidance solution helps school students identify the right career paths based on their strengths.

This tool is currently available in seven Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi along with English. Career guidance sessions are conducted to the students on the top career with a special emphasis on STEM careers. The institute has covered 10,931 students in more than 100 schools of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal through this initiative.

FEEDBACK FROM SCHOOLS

Sharing feedback on the sessions being held under this initiative, Mr. J Chandra Sekhar Gowd, Headmaster, Zilla Parishad High School, Siddarampuram village, Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, said, “This is an excellent initiative to awaken the genius in students through scientific knowledge. The service you are providing to the students makes every student develop reasoning faculty and scientific thinking. Reading science fiction makes a child experience thrill and it develops imagination and higher order thinking.”

In this initiative, the team visits schools to make learning more fun. Experts engage the students to make them understand how and why understanding science and applying science in real life is important as part of learning. A few experiments are demonstrated to make the session more engaging and active.

Different topics of science are discussed with the students to motivate students towards STEM education. Students are given the opportunity to ask questions. Engaging students through hands-on experiments and discussions about the real-world applications of scientific concepts can significantly enhance their understanding and interest in STEM.