The Indian Institute of Technology Madras aims to reach out to students in 50,000 government schools by 2026 through its science popularisation programme in regional languages.
The programme is being provided free of cost since 2015 and has reached 9,193 rural government schools so far. As many as 3,20,702 books have been distributed to students in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The students will receive career guidance as well. The aim of the outreach initiative is to motivate students to take up careers in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Interested schools and students may register at https://biotech.iitm.ac.in/Faculty/CNS_LAB/outreach.html
V. Srinivas Chakravarthy, professor in the Biotechnology Department of Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences at the institute, is coordinating the initiative. He has written/translated about 70 popular science books in Telugu for high school students.
Mr. Chakravarthy said popular science served as a bridge, translating complex scientific concepts into a language that makes it more accessible to a broader audience. “It allows individuals without a scientific background to engage with and appreciate the beauty and importance of scientific discoveries,” he said.
The initiative had the support of the institute and corporate social responsibility partners. In the last three years, the effort had been expanded to Hindi-speaking States as well, the institute said. As part of the initiative, the students go through a free career guidance assessment called ‘My Choice My Future’. The faculty and alumni have developed the tool in partnership with BodhBridge.
The MCMF tool offers detailed insights, and the online career guidance solution helps students. So far, 10,931 students in over 100 schools across the six States that are under the programme have benefitted, an institute release said.
The MCMF tool is a simple career guidance assessment that provides detailed insights. This online career guidance solution helps school students identify the right career paths based on their strengths. The tool is available currently in seven languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi, besides English.
