scientists and engineers a much higher level of education and training than does an under-industrialized country. At the present level of our national economy the education of a vast majority of scientists and engineers cannot be at the level reached by the highly industrialized countries. However, when it comes to postgraduate studies and research, and the training of those who will become leaders in their professions, the standard of attainment must bear international comparisons. For our best we must aim to provide the best education according to international standards. The only way this can be done is through a most careful selection of subjects for advanced study and research, selection of the most able students for such courses, and by building a small number of centres of excellence and assigning to each of these resources exceeding a certain critical size. These centres will determine the general tone of scientific work in the country and would serve as `growing points' for excellence.
16.12 It may be of interest to pursue a little further the connection between national productivity and investment on education and research. That there is a close inter-connection, a coupling, between them is apparent from a glance at Table 16.7 appearing later in the chapter. It is also vividly brought out by charts on pages 725 and 726. The relationship is essentially an expression of the fact that the modem world is science and technology based. However, it is not to be interpreted as a simple cause-and-effect relationship. A country would not automatically become prosperous by merely ploughing in more money into education and research. In fact it could also have the opposite effect. What the relationship implies is that science education and research of the right type and geared to national needs will lead to a rise in productivity. The increased productivity in its turn would provide more resources for science and research, and thus will be generated the rising (S-T-P) spiral of science, technology and productivity.
16.13 It is unfortunate that India today is almost at the bottom end of the ladder of GNP per capita, as also of the ladder of per capita expenditure on education and research. The Indian expenditure on education from primary to higher, and research and development, is about Rs. 15 per capita per year: it is about 3 per cent of the GNP. The corresponding figure for the USA is Rs. 2,000 (at 10 per cent of the GNP). By the end of the century the per capita Indian expenditure on education and research, on most optimistic projections, may go up to Rs. 200 per year (at constant prices)-this would be as high as nearly ten per cent of the per capita GNP at that time. The corresponding figure for the USA is likely to exceed Rs. 10,000 per year, The big gap of today would become far bigger in the coming decades. Even if we cannot foresee all the far-reaching consequences inherent in such a situation, the moral for us
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16.14 SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 727
is plain. In the utilization of our scientific manpower, we must strive our utmost to achieve high efficiency-higher even than that of the industrially developed countries, if we can. As the number of competent scientists and technologists available at any time is severely limited, hard and sometimes unpleasant choices have to be made between alternative programmes and courses of action. This cannot be evaded-it is inherent in the very nature of things. There is no place for complacency, but equally none for losing heart or being swept off the feet. The one thing that is supremely necessary in an age of rapid change and radical innovation is that we determine our priorities and programmes in education and research on the basis of hard 'indigenous' thinking and needs, and not follow the fashion set by other countries whether highly `advanced' or not so advanced. For instance, if we set as a goal to produce as many doctorates in physics as the USA is doing currently, it will be senseless not only because it is impossible of attainment in the foreseeable future, but because of its irrelevance to our needs and aspirations. *195
16.14 If science is to be pursued with full vigour and zest and is to become a mighty force in the Indian renaissance, it must derive its `nourishment' from our cultural and spiritual heritage and not bypass it. Science must become an integral part of our cultural fabric. It is possible that when science takes root in the native soil, and is no longer an exotic plant, its growth pattern may be visibly influenced by those features which have been characteristic of Indian philosophic thought and civilization. Part of the science 'fashion' may be set by us reflecting Indian ethos and value judgments. Let us also remember that thinking and creativity have a considerable element of the preconscious. All is not well with the way science has developed in the western world (or rather the 'northern world'). There are people who are seriously perturbed by the imbalance between the growth of science and awareness of the true interests and welfare of mankind as a whole. Knowledge and wisdom, power and compassion, are out of balance. Max Born, one of the greatest physicists of our time, has given expression to these fears and doubts thus: 'Though I love science I have the feeling that it is so much against history and tradition that it cannot be absorbed by our civilization. The political and military horrors and the complete breakdown of ethics which I have witnessed during my life may be not a symptom of an ephemeral social weakness but a necessary consequence of the rise of
195* The current output of doctorates in science and technology in the USA exceeds the output of M.Sc.'s in our country. The number of new Ph.D.s in physics in the USA was about 700 in 1963; and the total stock of Ph. D. physicists 7,630. The total support for basic physics in 1963 was about $ 500 million. The NAS Panel Report (Physics: Survey and Outlook 1966) has urged that this be raised to 1.1 billion dollars by 1969. The number of science and engineering doctorates awarded in 1920 in the USA was 400: it rose to 6,600 in 1960 and is expected to exceed 13,000 by 1970. This implies a doubling every 12 years.
728 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 16.15
science-which in itself is one of the highest intellectual achievements of man. If this is so, there will be an end to man as a free, responsible being. Should the race not be extinguished by a nuclear war it will degenerate into a flock of stupid, dumb creatures under the tyranny of dictators who rule them with the help of machines and electronic computers. *'196
SCIENCE EDUCATION 16.15 While science is expanding at a terrific pace, till very recently even in the educationally advanced countries, little attention was paid to any serious improvement and innovation in the teaching of science and mathematics. In particular, school and college mathematics has been grossly out of date, in content as well as in method and approach, and takes no account of the profound discoveries made during the last 100 years or more. In the last decade the US National Science Foundation, as also the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, have made a pioneering contribution towards initiating a `revolution' in the teaching of science and mathematics. A significant contribution has also been made by the Nuffield Science Foundation which has developed new curriculum materials at the school level. The movement is now spreading to many countries. Fortunately for the entire process of improving school and college science and mathematics, top university teachers and researchers have become directly `nvolved in this process. The contribution of Professor Jerrald R. Zacharias of the M.I.T., Boston, will, for instance, ever remain memorable in this field.
16.16 In this context it is important to recognize that science is becoming increasingly complex and abstract. The new developments in physics and mathematics make altogether novel demands on abstraction and conceptualization of nature. Referring to the progress in theoretical physics during recent years, P. A. M. Dirac observes: Her (Nature's) fundamental laws do not govern the world as it appears in our mental picture in any very direct way, but instead they control a substratum of which we cannot form a mental picture without introducing irrelevances ... This state of affairs is very satisfactory from a philosophical point of view, as implying an increasing recognition of the part played by the observer in himself introducing the regularities that appear in his observations, and a lack of arbitrariness in the ways of nature, but it makes things less easy for the learner of physics. Like the fundamental concepts (e.g., proximity, identity) which every one must learn on his arrival into the world, the newer concepts of physics can be mastered only by long familiarity with their properties and uses.
196* Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 1966.
16.19 SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 729
16.17 All this emphasizes the need from the earliest stage of science education for a proper understanding of the basic principles and the process of scientific abstraction and creative thinking. It must communicate to the pupils a feeling for discovery and creativity, and a realization that science is open-ended and man's greatest intellectual enterprise today. And what is more important, this enterprise is rooted in man's highest aspirations and deepest motivations, and it stresses cooperation above competition. Science teaching at all levels has to be creative teaching. It also means that a deliberate effort should be made to develop in the pupils the habits of concentration and contemplation. If the quality of education has to be improved, something will have to be done to each of the millions of individual pupils; and this emphasizes the importance of activizing and renovating every individual teacher. The magnitude of the problems we face is truly immense.
16.18 Expansion of Enrolments: Supply of Teachers. In recent years, and more so since Independence (1947), the number of young people graduating in science and technology in India has been increasing rapidly. *197 This is a welcome trend. It represents a growing awareness and desire for education in science and science- based courses. It is also stimulated by the larger possibilities of profitable employment open to graduates in science and technology. The number of people who received B.Sc. degrees in science subjects in 1963 was 31,638 as against only 9,628 in 1950. The corresponding figures for engineering and technology are 9,227 and 1,660 and for agriculture (including veterinary science) 4,872 and 1,100 respectively. The number of doctorate degrees in science and technology has increased during this period from about 100 to 540.
16.19 Let us see how these outputs compare with the total population
197* Science teaching in India first began, it seems, in the Calcutta Hindu College (which later became the Presidency College) founded in 1817 due to the initiative of Raja Rammohan Roy. it took a hundred years before serious postgraduate work and research started in the country. An outstanding event was the establishment of the Calcutta University College of Science under the leadership of the late Sir Asutosh Mookerjee.
The scientific revolution started in Western Europe some three hundred years ago, but it is less than a hundred years that science found a proper home in the universities of the Western world. In 1858 Michael Faraday urged: 'As a branch of learning, men are beginning to recognize the right of science to its own particular place; (but) now the fitness of university degrees in science is under consideration, and many are taking a high view of it, as distinguished from literature, and think that it may well be studied for its own sake i.e., as a proper exercise of the human intelligence, able to bring into action and development all powers of the mind. (Proceedings of the Royal Institute, London, 1858.)
The Indian Education Commission Report of 1882 records that in that year, in all subjects, 266 Bachelor's degrees and 40 Master's degrees were awarded. Incidentally, the failure rate at the Bachelor's examinations at that time was about the same as generally prevailing in India today: it was about 60 per cent.
As a sharp reminder of the relative backwardness of Indian education it may be noted that in the year 1880 in the USA 12,896 Bachelor's and first. professional degrees, 879 Master's or second professional degrees, and 54 Doctorate or equivalent degrees were awarded. The U.S. population in 1880 was about 50 million (F. Machlup, Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, Princeton University, 1962, P. 91).
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in the relevant age groups. It is sometimes helpful in discussing manpower problems, and making international comparisons, to view the output (and also the input) as a percentage of the corresponding age group. The average age at which the B.Sc. degree in science subjects is taken is about 20 years. This may be regarded as the median age and the age distribution is likely to have a variance of about a year. The M.Sc. degree in science subjects is taken at about 22 years, and the first degree in engineering and technology at about the same age. It may be noted that as regards the total duration of the course after completion of secondary education, it is our M.Sc. degree in science which should be equated to the first degree (Bachelor's degree) in engineering, technology and agriculture. The average age at which a doctorate degree is received may be taken to be about 26 years, but the variance in the age distribution will be much more than for the bachelor's degree.
16.20 The actual number of degrees awarded in 1950 and 1963, expressed as percentage of the corresponding age group, are given in Table 16.1.
TABLE 16.1 DEGREES AWARDED IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN 1950 AND 1963
Degrees Number of degrees Percentage of the Average
awarded corresponding (compound)
age-group rate of
growth
per year
1950 1963 1950 1963
B.Sc. 9,628 31,638 0.14 0.37 9.6%
M.Sc. 861 4,478 0.013 0.055 13.6%
(excluding Mathematics)
M.A./M.Sc.
(Mathematics) 251 1,857 0.004 0.023 16.6%
Bachelor's degree
in Technology
(Engineering and
other subjects)1,660 9,217 0.026 0.11 14.1%
Bachelor's degree
in Agriculture
and Veterinary
Science 1,100 4,872 0.017 0.060 12.1%
Doctorate degree
in Science and
Technology 100 540 .. .. 13.9%
Source. University Grants Commission, University Development in India 1964-65.
16.21 The Output of M.Sc.s in different science subjects in Indian universities since 1950 is given in Table 16.2. It may be noticed that the current Output of M.Sc. in our country is less than the output in the USA
16.22 SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 731
of doctorates in science and technology. The number of doctorates in science and engineering awarded in the USA rose from 400 in 1920 to 6,600 in 1960 and is expected to exceed 13,000 by 1970. This implies a doubling every twelve years. The current output of graduates in science and technology in the USA is about four per cent of the relevant age-group-it is about equally divided between the two fields. The percentage for the USSR is nearly the same, but the proportion of engineers is far more than scientists.
16.22 Apart from improving the standard of the postgraduate courses, the postgraduate enrolments in science and mathematics would need to be expanded several-fold in the coming decades to meet the de- mands of rapidly expanding secondary and higher education and of research and industry. We envisage an annual rate of increase of about 10 to 15 per cent. This would mean, that at the end of two decades, the numbers would be about ten times the present enrolments. To achieve such a large-scale expansion without diluting standards in the process is an extremely difficult task. It will require bold action and careful planning. It will need a massive financial support (including foreign exhange component) for the construction and equipping of new laboratories, and a most energetic and determined effort on the part of all concerned to recruit and train the teaching staff. The recruitment of new teachers every year will have to be at the rate of some 20 per cent of the current strength in order to meet the demands of increasing enrolments, present shortages, and replacements due to retirement and other causes. This places a special obligation on the Centres of Advanced Study and other quality departments and institutions. Through provision of liberal scholarships at the postgraduate and research level and other incentives, it should be ensured that at least a half of the output of the Centres join the teaching profession. The Academic Planning Board which we have elsewhere *198 recommended to be set up in every university, should assume a special responsibility for advanced planning of the requirements of academic staff. it should keep in touch with the relevant centres of advanced study, and wherever possible to preselect would-be staff members and arrange for their special training. There is always a scarcity of outstanding persons in any profession, and, if anything, it is more accentuated in science and mathematics. The top-ranking professionals are the nation's most precious asset, and everything possible should be done to use them to the best advantage of the country. An institution which has an outstanding staff should be encouraged to organize short period special courses (from a few weeks to months) to which selected students (and also teachers) from other parts of the country would be invited. Also, it would be a distinct advantage if some of the
198 See Chapter XIII.
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16.23 SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 733