Dear Readers,

The Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan
has recently generated a lot of buzz and could be crucial for your exams.

Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) is
a nationwide campaign developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development
that aims at expanding the reach of Science, Mathematics and Technology on the
grass-root school level. This article will look at the objectives, background,
working framework and supplementary strategies undertaken by the government.

Objectives

·
To inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and
love for Science and Mathematics in school children.

·
To focus on linking school based knowledge to
life outside the school and making learning of Science and Mathematics a joyful
and meaningful task.

·
 To create
a culture of inventing, thinking, tinkering and doing to promote enquiry-based
learning in schools.

·
To encourage and nurture schools to serve as
incubators of innovation.

·
To enable children to become engaged and
motivated in Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) by observation, experimentation,
model building, inference drawing, rational reasoning and testability.

Background

·
The Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan was launched by
former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on 9 July 2015. It is a part of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Teach in
India’.

·
According to the Ministry of Human Resources
Development (MHRD), the RAA is “a convergent framework that aims at nurturing a
spirit of inquiry and creativity, love for Science and Mathematics and effective
use of technology amongst children and encourage those who show an inclination
and talent for these subjects to be encouraged and supported to heights of
academic excellence and research.”

·
Under RAA, government schools will be guided and
mentored by premier institutes including the IITs, IIMs and other Central
universities by innovative programmes, student exchanges, etc.

·
Union Minister for HRD, Smriti Irani has said
that the second phase of RAA will be launched in January 2016 for higher
education. Under this phase, model science laboratories will be set up in all
districts of North Eastern states.

·
Following the sudden demise of Dr. Kalam on 27th
July, HRD Minister Smriti Irani declared that the RAA would be renamed after
him, and thereby known as APJ Abdul Kalam Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan.

Working Framework

1. National Steering Committee (NSC)

At the national level, there will
be a National Steering Committee. It will be co-chaired by Secretary,
Department of School Education and Literacy and Secretary, Department of Higher
Education.

Functions of NSC

·
To execute RAA by coordination and synergy with
other Government of India (GoI) organizations and programmes aimed at
popularizing science.

·
To institutionalize major schemes of the
Abhiyan, like school mentoring by premier higher education institutions,
promotion of teacher circles, promoting Student Science Clubs, Resource
Material Development, Advocacy and Monitoring.

·
To keep track of the Abhiyan activities of each
state once in every six months and extend required support and follow it up
with necessary action.

·
To converge, coordinate and harmonize funds
under GoI initiatives, industry activities and civil society contributions in
order to enhance RAA’s outreach.

2. State Level Steering Committee (SLSC)

At the state/UT level, there will
be State Level Steering Committee (SLSC). It will be headed by the State/UT
Education Secretary.

Functions of SLSC

·
To put RAA into effect by convergence and
synergy in the State or Union Territory and mobilization of adequate funding.

·
To institutionalize the different programmes of
the Abhiyan like attracting talent and promoting teacher circles to accomplish
the objectives of RAA.

·
To monitor the progress of the Abhiyan every
three months and extend necessary support and follow up action.

·
To encourage participation of all government and
aided schools under RAA and widen the coverage of schools with emphasis on
equity and inclusion of children of all religious, social, linguistic and
economic classes and especially girls.

·
To aid and motivate organizations to hold
district and state level competitions like Science and Mathematics Olympiads,
and to encourage students as well as teachers by ample awards.

Alternative Strategies to Encourage SMT

Apart from the approaches based
primarily on school-based learning, the MHRD has also planned various ways to
encourage and popularize SMT in the students. This way, the focus will be on modeling
education based on learning. These strategies are applicable to  

1. School Mentoring

·
Higher Education Institutions (HEI) will be
networked and encouraged to mentor neighbourhood Higher Secondary, Secondary
and Upper Primary schools for five years. Some of these Mentoring Institutions
will be Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER),
National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and National Council of Science
Museums (NCSM).

·
The Department of Science and Technology and NCSM
would play significant roles in encouraging activities in schools to promote
science. The students of IITs and NITs may be encouraged to mentor Kendriya
Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas to take up local problem solving
assignments.

·
These Mentoring Institutions would be
responsible for improving student engagements through SMT activities in
schools, cultivating a culture of ‘making and doing’ among students and
teachers, ensuring technology-enabled scientific talks and seminars at schools,
and encouraging coordinated engagement of teachers and students with planned
sustenance in the form of material access and intellectual and institutional
support.

2. Science and Mathematics Teacher Circles

·
The Mentoring Institutions will group the
Science and Mathematics teachers at decentralized levels on a voluntary basis.
The Mentors would then try to develop teacher capacities for newer, engaging
and empowering manners of teaching.

·
The Mentors would try to engage teachers as a
community and propagate a system of doing and creating knowledge while
maintaining the depths and intricacies of specific subject details.

·
The Mentors would help in providing a platform
for teachers to share their experiences with one another, give presentations of
their professional journeys – innovations, successes and failures in teaching
SMT – with their peers. The role of the Mentoring Institutions would be to
build partnerships in these meets.

·
SMT centric teacher circles would encourage local
school-based campaigns, development of affordable education kits for schools to
use, residential summer programs for teacher for upgradation in Science and
Mathematics teaching methods, organization of local Science exhibitions or book
fairs, publish media articles on SMT and activities on Contemporary scientific
events to create awareness.

3. Science and Mathematics Clubs for Children

·
MHRD, in partnership with Vigyan Prasar and NCSM
will help schools to institutionalize science clubs for students in schools for
Science and Mathematics. The Mentoring Institutions will play a major role in
formation of these clubs. Necessary support from science-based voluntary
agencies may also be sought.

·
Informal out-of-school engagements with Science
and Maths teachers would be held. These sessions would be learner-motivated,
contextually relevant, collaborative, non-linear and open-ended.

·
The functions of these Science and Mathematics
clubs would be to promote a curiosity, enquiry, innovation and creativity among
students by activities that would complement class learning, to encourage
children and youth to take up scientific tasks and contribute to the goals of
cultivating a scientific society, and to empower and encourage students to take
part in National Science Congress.

4. Sensitization of Parents and Community

·
Government will come up with promotional
communication plans to sensitize parents and society on Science and Mathematics
in a society that is knowledge-based.

·
Regular community-scientist interactions will be
held every six months using television, radio and other mass media.

·
Involvement of parents in classroom teaching at
school level.

·
Inviting parents and community leaders in the
SMT activities of schools.

·
Engaging civil society and NGO working on
Science and Mathematics (chosen by the Mentoring Institutions) in popularizing
the subjects.

These are the major points to
remember in the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan. If you can understand these well,
you will easily be able to attempt questions on this.

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