Virtual laboratories for school students likely

Updated on: Thursday, September 09, 2010

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will explore the possibility of setting up virtual laboratories for students, its chairman Vineet Joshi said here on Wednesday.

Speaking to presspersons at a programme organised by the Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Educational Trust at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, he said “There is no replacement to doing things oneself and learning, but virtual labs can reach more students.” The Board had recently sent out a circular to affiliated schools, urging them to refrain from pressuring students. “It is possible that as part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), some schools put pressure on students by giving excessive project work. We have also insisted that project work be taken up in class, and group activity should also be encouraged,” Mr. Joshi said.

The Board's website had put up details on what the CCE is and importantly, what it's not, for the benefit of teachers, parents and students, he said.

Launch of content

Mr. Joshi earlier launched online and offline content in physics and chemistry for students of classes VI, VII and VIII. A Kuruvila Jacob Initiative, the effort had senior academicians, research scholars, teachers and web designers collaborating.

Director of IIT-Madras M.S.Ananth said he was happy that the Institute could partner the initiative. Besides academic inputs from its professors, IIT-M also provided technical support in bringing out the content.

“Animation, features such as FAQs and a wiki for students to ask questions have been included,” he said.

Observing that virtual content was becoming popular as a teaching aid, Prof. Ananth said “Earlier, we followed the gurukula system, where the student went to the teacher's house. Now, it's become sishyakula, where lessons are brought to students' homes.”

Prof. Ananth said he hoped that the initiative was expanded to include Mathematics, and class X, too.

S. Viji of the Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Educational Trust said “Nearly 80 teachers from 22 schools in the city have contributed to this initiative, by providing inputs and reviewing content.” The idea was not to displace teachers, but to support them, he added.

Speaking on the other initiatives of the Trust, he said leadership programmes for school heads were being held and the Trust was also working with schools run by the Chennai Corporation to develop them into model schools.

Senior academics Vijayalakshmi Srivatsan and A. Suryanarayana Rao were the coordinators for chemistry and physics content respectively.

The content launched on Wednesday is available in DVDs and can also be downloaded from the internet for free. For details, visit: http://kji.iitm.ac.in.

Virtual laboratories for school students likely

More Education news