Recently
a discussion meeting was held on the subject of higher education in
the country with particular emphasis on teaching biology at Garhwal
University, Srinagar in Uttaranchal. Prof Asha Chandola-Saklani the
zoologist was the convener and she had invited teachers from Delhi University
and the Banaras Hindu University besides me as discussants. The students
of the MSc class actively participated and there were many surprises
in store for me. The first surprise was how articulate and how well
informed the students were. There was, generally speaking, an awareness
of the training programmes in the various parts of the country. There
were among them students who had qualified for the Summer Research Fellowship
Programme of the JNCASR and at least two of the men students were planning
to appear for the IISc, NCBS and JNCASR interviews in June 2003. Understandably,
in personal conversations they were anxious about employment opportunities
in India given their background. All this was in marked contrast to
my experience with a batch of students at Garhwal University in 1994
who were very shy, withdrawn and not very participatory. May be the
change was effected by the dynamic programmes of teaching Asha Chandola-Saklani
had introduced with the active assistance of the UGC. This is not being
written with any degree of condescension. I am plainly putting the performance
of the zoology students in this remote area with that of students in
the state universities in the south.
I felt very flattered that the students were avid readers of Resonance.
When I referred to an article that appeared in it in 1996 they looked
unfazed and told me that they would look it up. Which means that they
were reading Resonance from its inception. Another feature I noticed
was that the two days programme and events were all handled by the students.
In fact one of the bolder boys told me he was planning to become a DJ
if he can. 1 thought that was uplifting.
