Quest. Explore. Discover. Called QED in short, the initiative by Krishna Srinivasan focuses on revolutionising science education by engaging, entertaining and educating students through working models of all science concepts.
Krishna Srinivasan, a scholar at Princeton University and founder of ISGN Corporation, who holds a masters in Computer Science, has been working in the fields of technology, analytics, mortgage and private equity for more than a decade.
On observing the current trend and quality of students graduating out of colleges and their poor employability, he decided to start QED, a flagship product of Everest Edusys Pvt Ltd.
Having deep knowledge of various concepts in science, Krishna is seen quizzing about laws of force and motion and eventually giving his explanations for them using a high-low road science exhibit.
“The normal life cycle of a student in this generation involves studying hard in school without understanding the basic concept of science and passing out with good grades by just mugging up. This follows a seat in an engineering college and graduating from there to the horror of not finding a job that suits his skills. Ultimately he turns unemployable. A very small percentage of people are considered employable in our country. Isn’t this a sorry state?” he asks.
He felt that a change needed to be brought right at the primary level where students are exposed to many new concepts. He insisted the need for a student to understand what he learnt.
Krishna further said that fundamentals should be taught in a fun way, which will eventually create interest in the subject and education on the whole.
“On an average, a middle school science student is exposed to more than 250 science concepts between grades six and eight, which acts as a foundation knowledge for the high end concepts during higher education. When a subject like computer, which involves predefined inputs and outputs are taught with the help of computers in school labs, how can one learn science, which is far more complicated, by just teaching theories without experiencing it?” he asked. Through the exhibits, QED aims at offering a content centric learning. The program, which was officially launched in January 2013 after two solid years of research and development under Everest Edusys and Solutions, has got major help from IIT-Madras and the Indian Institute of Science.
QED focuses on both private and public sector and aims to strike a balance in their business by being both socially impactful and financially viable. It has set up many science galleries all over the State with the help of the government, including four in Chennai. It has also conducted QED Science days in Chennai, Coimbatore and Bangalore.
All the Science Days get good response from the students, said Uma Mahesh, vice-president, Business Development, QED.
Science Days help QED gain the attention of schools and create an impact on school heads and teachers who are traditionally routed in general.
“We see a visible difference in students after they visit these exhibits,” she said. Even in their first pilot phase, they experienced 60 per cent success rate, with most schools approaching them for setting up science camps and science labs in their schools premises, she added. In fact, their quality consciousness is inevitable as they not only train other school teachers, but also their own trainers, who regularly update themselves.
Though this creative methodology to improvise the standard of education in school level had seen commendable responses, there is one thing that irks Krishna.
“My aim is to reach all the schools and implement this successful methodology, which is tested and proven. But at this phase, we are unable to reach the needy. We know there are schools which truly appreciate QED and would want to implement them, but they can’t afford it,” said Krishna, adding that the company would soon come out with schemes of various levels to make it accessible to all.
According to him, this was their initial step into creating a revolution and they had miles to go into the journey. “Concentrating on science is just a start as it travels with a student for a longer period. But we will come up with other subjects also and traverse through the whole range of school students. We have huge plans, but let this flourish,” he concludes.
