Museums, Fun and Education

Bharat reminds me how Museums are a powerful tool for education and it is sad that many Museums in India are in a sad state of affairs.

So, let us revisit Museums' role in education:

Prabhas Kumar Singh quotes John Falk & Lynn (1992), who had extensively studied museum education in U.S.A, India, U.K and many other countries:

The information a visitor receives during a museum visit tends to bear a ‘contextual map’. The museum visit represents a collection of experiences rather than a single unitary phenomenon.

Any information obtained during the museum visit is likely to include social related, attitude related, cognitive related and sensory related association.

These associations will become embedded in memory altogether with the result that anyone facet of these experiences can facilitate the recall of the entire experience.

Thus Museums are rather a source of intellectual stimulation and entertainment.

Exhibition halls, properly arranged secondary collections, labels, guided tours, traveling exhibitions, school class visits, loan services to the schools, training courses to the teachers, illustrated lectures, motion pictures, film trips and publications, etc. are the various means which constitute the educational activities in a museum.

There are many organizations, projects and budgets, but no ENTHUSIASTS among those who run these initiatives!

For example, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an autonomous society under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (formed 1978), administers 27 science centres/museums/planetariums spread all over India.

The Delhi unit is National Science Centre , www.nscdelhi.org, (Pragati Maidan, Near Gate No.1).

Its various VARIOUS INDOOR & OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES include:

• Commemorative Events
• Community Programmes
• Creative Ability Camp
• Environmental Awareness Programmes
• Film Shows
• Nature Study Camps
• Popular Science Lectures
• Science Camp/Fair
• Science Demonstration Lectures (SDL)
• Science Quiz
• Science Seminar
• Science Shows
• Sky Observation Camp
• Taramandal Shows
• Teachers' Training Programme
• Vacation Hobby Camp/ Centre

An interesting project : Virtual Museums as Innovative Tool for Adult Education (VMIT)

Pay MORE to Teachers

It is well known that most people avoid teaching as a profession (usually it is the last resort.)

The United Nations has reiterated that "Low salaries, lack of job security, inadequate training and overcrowded classrooms have combined to deter many willing and eligible people from becoming teachers....The shortage of qualified teachers is one of the biggest challenges to achieving the Education for All goals.”

How can we encourage talented people to take up the teaching profession?

First thing, of course, is to pay them more. But, what else?

What ALL do we need to do to CAUSE a world-wide revolution in education?

How can we create a powerful context for people to CHOOSE teaching as a first-preference profession?