A K Bakhshi , Vice-Chancellor, PDM University, Bahadurgarh, Haryana delivered the Inaugural Plenary Address at a two-day (19 – 20 March, 2018) National Conference on Chemical Sciences: Opportunities and Challenges at St. Stephen’s College. He spoke on Chemistry Education in the 21st Century : Challenges and Opportunities. John Varghese, Principal, St. Stephen’s college was present at the inauguration of the conference.
Expressing concern at the quality of chemistry education in India, Bakhshi said that chemistry knowledge is growing very fast and many new ideas and theories are emerging on the chemistry scene. As a result, many new sub-disciplines of chemistry have emerged and therefore research in the frontier areas is becoming more and more challenging due to vastly increasing literature in each field. All this poses a serious problem for chemistry education as new chemistry knowledge needs to be made part of syllabi to educate future generations. Bakhshi asserted that focus on teaching-learning in higher education should not be on rote learning but it should encourage thinking, innovation and creativity among students. In India, we have a dearth of creative minds who can work passionately to achieve breakthroughs in science. He also expressed concern at the fact that no Indian scientist has won the Nobel Prize in science during the last 88 years. Does all this not reflect on our education systemIJ
Bakhshi said that the integration of technology with education in the form of e-learning and MOOCs is going to change the face of education in the country. This changed scenario is not to replace teachers but to empower them.