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The following proposal was made to the IISER and NISER Directors.

Dear Directors of IISERs/IISc/NISER:

As you are well aware one of the main reasons the IISERs and NISER were created was to attract good students to careers in science and provide them top notch facilities during the Bachelors and Masters. The government also instituted lucrative INSPIRE fellowships for students pursuing science after high school.

However, there is so much hype about IIT and Engineering that adequate numbers of top students do not pursue science after high school.

Thus there is a need to establish special schools (say 8th to 12th grade) that identify students with aptitude in science and mathematics and give them an environment where they are encouraged to pursue science as a career. These schools could partly feed the IISERs. Its role would be similar to the role of Sainik Schools vis-a-vis NDA and the Indian military academy. The science magnet schools could be from class 8 to12 with the goal of exposing the wonders of science and arousing the scientific creativity among the most talented youngsters of the country. It will also indirectly shield them from the hype of the IITs. (I am an IIT graduate so I can say that without being accused of being jealous of IITs.)

I currently live in the USA and there are many science magnet high schools in the USA. I do not know of any in India. (IIT Coaching high schools in Kota or other places don't count. I am told at best certain schools have special science groupings and there are those junior science colleges at +2 level.) To understand what I mean by a science magnet school I would request you to explore the web page of the Illinois Math and Science Academy ( http://www.imsa.edu). 40% of IMSA faculty have Ph.Ds and it has a Nobel laureate as a residential scholar. I am attaching a few pages from the IMSA website, as it is a bit difficult to navigate.

There are many other such science magnet schools in the USA such as http://www.dallasisd.org/schools/hs/sem/ (School of Science and Engineering in Dallas), http://www.lsmsa.edu/Welcome/index.htm (The Louisiana School of Math, Science and Arts), http://www.bsu.edu/academy/ (The Indiana Academy for Science Mathematics and Humanities, associated with a university), http://www.bxscience.edu/?rn=7944 (Bronx high school of science ), http://www.ncssm.edu/ (North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics), and http://www.tams.unt.edu/ (Texas Academy of Maths and Sciences, associated with a university). There is a list of such schools world wide at http://jubilee.batelco.jo/Links/tabid/55/Default.aspx but none are in India.

The initial set of such schools in India could be located near the IISER, NISER and IISc campus. In this regard, please note that some of the science magnet schools in US are associated with universities. (IMSA is not.)

best regards
Chitta

--
Chitta Baral
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral
Professor, Computer Science & Engineering
Affiliate Professor, Biomedical Informatics
Arizona State University

========== A 2 page proposal is given below ===========================

Proposal: Establishment of Raman/Khorana/Bose/Chandrashekar

Math and Science Academies

(a.k.a. science magnet schools)

1. Problem that is being targeted: Indian Science has fallen behind in the world. Part of the reason is that the best talents out of high school pursue Engineering and Medicine and not science. To revive Indian Science it is necessary that some of them pursue careers in science.

2. Indian Government’s recent attempt to tackle this problem:

(a) It has established six IIT type science institutes that have undergraduate programs in science. They are IISERs in Pune, Kolkata, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvanthapuram, and NISER in Bhubaneswar.

(b) It has also introduced the INSPIRE fellowships.

3. The above is not enough: The last three years of experience has shown that most of the students going to the IISERs and NISER are ones who were unsuccessful in getting to the IITs. In other words, very few of the top students are opting for NISER/IISERs.

4. Societal, parental and peer pressure to pursue engineering and medicine: Students at the high school level face tremendous pressure from parents, friends and society at large to pursue engineering and medicine. So most of the students interested in science and mathematics opt for neither and go for engineering or medicine.

5. Proposed Solution: Create specialized residential high schools, say from grades 8-12, which will:

(a) Take students at the 8th grade level who are interested and have the aptitude for science and mathematics. They can be identified via special exams, similar to the ones conducted by the RMTS (Rural Math Talent Search) exam in Orissa.

(b) Expose these students to the beauty of science; have them interact with scientists, including Nobel prize winners, and put them through an exciting but rigorous science and mathematics curriculum.

(c) Mentor them by scientists. Mentoring plays a huge role. Dr. Swadhin Pattanaik of Institute of mathematics and Applications, Bhubaneswar has been mentoring high schools students (some identified through RMTS) for a decade and a significant number of those students are pursuing careers in science.

(c) Protect these students, as much as possible, from the societal and parental pressure to pursue engineering and medicine.

(d) Teach the Biology and Chemistry curriculum in an exciting manner as in most schools in India, Biology and Chemistry are taught in such a rote way that while many students with scientific bent of mind enjoy Mathematics and Physics they dislike Chemistry and Biology.

(e) Provide these students with free lodging, boarding, books, and other study materials. This will be one of the major incentives, especially in the early years of this program, why many will join these schools. In the early years, a large percentage of the students will be from rural areas and/or poorer families who have less access to good schools. That actually solves another problem of our society where students from disadvantaged (poor and rural) background are less successful in getting into the marquee institutes.

6. It is now expected that many of these students will pursue careers in science: This is similar to the Sainik schools in various states whose graduates pursue career in the military at a higher rate than normal schools.

7. Situation in Other countries: Many other countries have such special schools, often referred to as Science Magnet Schools. One such school is the Illinois Math and Science Academy - IMSA (http://www.imsa.edu). 40% of IMSA faculty have Ph.Ds and it has a Nobel laureate as a residential scholar. There are many other such science magnet schools in the USA such as http://www.dallasisd.org/schools/hs/sem/ (School of Science and Engineering in Dallas), http://www.lsmsa.edu/Welcome/index.htm (The Louisiana School of Math, Science and Arts), http://www.bsu.edu/academy/ (The Indiana Academy for Science Mathematics and Humanities, associated with a university), http://www.bxscience.edu/?rn=7944 (Bronx high school of science ), http://www.ncssm.edu/ (North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics), and http://www.tams.unt.edu/ (Texas Academy of Maths and Sciences, associated with a university).

There is a list of such schools world wide at http://jubilee.batelco.jo/Links/tabid/55/Default.aspx but none are in India.

8. Example Curricula of such schools: See the following links of Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA). Please s

* List of courses at IMSA
* Learning standards at IMSA: Science
* Learning standards IMSA: Maths

9. Implementation: In the first phase one such school may be attached to each of the IISERs and the NISER, and the Institute of Mathematics and Applications, Bhubaneswar; the latter because it is already doing something very similar through its RMTS program. Following that such schools may be attached to various research institutes. Eventually, each state should have multiple such schools.