How STEM-based edu can help students make leap from users of tech to innovators

The National Technology Day is observed in India on May 11, of every year to widely acknowledge the significance of technology in our daily lives. The day commemorates the pioneering contributions and achievements of the scientific community in the country, including engineers, scientists, researchers, and more. This is the day in 1998 when India became a part of the coveted group of nations holding their nuclear weapons, undertaking tests successfully at Pokhran, under the supervision of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. On the same day, the first Hansa-3 indigenous Indian aircraft was tested in Bangalore. As a result, the Indian government under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced 11th May as National Technology Day. The theme for 2022 has been declared as Integrated Approach in Science & Technology for Sustainable Future.

In this regard, a strong case can be made for embellishing the fundamental rights of each citizen with the addition of STEM education. This is now being talked about by leading industry experts, especially when it comes to optimizing and achieving the vision of AmritKaal. The term was used extensively by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech this year. She referred to it as the 25-year-long lead-up to India@100. She also talked about how the Union Budget would have a parallel AmritKaal foundation which will be more inclusive and future-oriented, benefiting women, youth, farmers, SCs, and STs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi used this term at the 75th celebrations of Independence Day.

The Prime Minister has outlined AmritKaal as a massive improvement in citizens' lives, reducing development gaps between cities and villages, and most importantly, embracing cutting-edge technologies. The term itself derives from Vedic texts, indicating a period that is the most auspicious for beginning new development.

The case for STEM education

There could be multifarious benefits to making STEM education a fundamental right for all citizens, considering the changing needs of the time and the AmritKaal vision over the next 25 years. STEM education is a contemporary approach that is already gaining traction in developed nations while its benefits are gradually being felt across developed nations that had implemented the same earlier. India's socio-economic and developmental issues require solutions driven by skilled human resources, new-age technology, and optimum skill-sets, perceptions, and knowledge. This is even more significant in our country since it will enable learning in a more organized, scientific, logical, and systematic way which is also more futuristic. STEM education will primarily equip students with the framework to continually update, explore and build knowledge with more innovation. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) will strongly shape the contemporary educational system while teaching students to solve problems.

STEM education will help in building knowledge about engineering, science, mathematics, and physics while encouraging them to apply concepts throughout life and not just in the classroom. It will help in boosting mental abilities, logical deduction powers, reasoning, and confidence while enabling greater mastery over computational and scientific mechanisms. STEM education can thus be made a fundamental right for all citizens. Education is already a fundamental right in India. Article 21-A of our Constitution provides compulsory and free education to all children between 6-14 years of age as a fundamental right.

51A (Part IVA) of our Constitution lists out the fundamental duties of citizens. Duties 8 and 11 are worth noting. Number 8 states that citizens should develop a scientific temperament and aspirit of inquiry and reform. Fundamental duty 11 states that each guardian/parent should provide educational opportunities to children between 6-14 years of age. Making STEM education a fundamental right in line with these fundamental duties should help the nation optimize AmritKaal and make it a reality. STEM offers more creative, innovation-driven, and DIY-learning styles. STEM education should be disseminated through its integration into the school framework while also through science centers and other institutions. Building capacity through laboratories, infrastructure, the latest technologies, and teachers is also crucial.

STEM education should be a fundamental and compulsory part of the primary school curriculum. This will give students more exposure to science, mathematics, and technology and inculcate a spirit of practice, innovation, and reasoning. STEM education is also founded on the principles of better communication and teamwork, inculcating interdisciplinary communication and problem-solving attributes, thereby optimizing and complementing the AmritKaal vision.

(The author is Founder & CEO of Indus Net Technologies (INT.))