Nitish Kumar urges retd IIT prof to open ‘model’ school in Patna

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has invited eminent physicist Harish Chandra Verma to open in Patna a model school for underprivileged children, similar to the one he runs at IIT-Kanpur. The CM assured all possible help to the retired IIT professor for the purpose.

Addressing a function organised by the state education department to mark the National Education Day at the S

K Memorial Hall

on Saturday, the CM said teachers should follow the pedagogical techniques of ‘Verma sir’.

“Natural learning should be part of the teaching to make the lessons more interesting. There is no dearth of talented students in Bihar, who can excel in life if they get proper guidance from their teachers,” the CM said.

Nitish also honoured the Darbhanga-born physicist with a citation and a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh. Around 3,000 students from government schools along with their teachers attended the event. Education minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma and principal secretary (education)

R K Mahajan

were also present on the occasion.

Nitish also spoke about the state government’s efforts to promote girl education. “Girls studying in Class IX numbered only 1.7 lakh a decade now, but today nine lakh girls study in Class IX,” he said and added the enrolment rate of girls in Class IX was now almost equal to that of the boys while the girls:boys ratio in Class X was now 49:51.

Talking about his ‘Opportunity School’ in Kanpur, Prof Verma said the classes in this school were not just about completing the syllabus or preparing students to get good scores. “We encouraged kids to take part in activities as we put stress on overall development of the students,” he said and added the school transformed lives of hundreds of underprivileged kids living in and around the IIT-K campus and many of them carved a niche for themselves.

Berating the trend of what he said “markswad”, the retired professor rued that students these days focused on obtaining high score and, in the process, lost their thinking capability.

His mantra to students: The moment you start enjoying the learning, your thinking capability will broaden.