Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management
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Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management |
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Refresher course for earth science teachers, Hyderabad, Nov. 3-15, 2003Consensus of the Roundtable Discussion on “Natural Resources Management, Geoscience instruction and Jobs”, JNTU, Hyderabad, 1400 – 1640 hrs., Nov. 3 (MO)*
[Report on the Refresher Course for earth science teachers Focal Theme: Natural Resources Management, Environment and Employment, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kukatpally campus, Hyderabad, India] Geoscience instruction in India is facing a serious crisis – instances are known of well-established university geology departments with more than a score of senior teachers having just a couple of M.Sc. students. This profound lack of demand for geoscience studies is a direct consequence of the paucity of employment opportunities for traditionally-trained geoscience graduates which itself arose from the continuous downsizing of the government departments which used to employ geoscience graduates so trained. In actuality, there has been a major shift in the employment market, but the geoscience instruction failed to respond to it, presumably because there are no in-built adaptive mechanisms to do so. The present situation is evidently unsustainable, and innovative ways and means have to be found to ameliorate the situation. A practical way to make the geoscience education in India (and other developing countries) employment-generating, relevant to the needs of the country, modern, flexible, affordable and of good quality, is to make it end-use oriented (rather than subject discipline oriented, as before) and broad-based (as earth system science). The end-use orientation can be achieved by designing course ensembles built around potential job clusters. Innovations in technologies are creating new jobs in the process of converting into a resource what was till yesterday a non-resource (“Resources are not, they become” – Zimmerman), in developing process and control technologies to minimize wastes, and in recycling wastes. The new kinds of jobs (e.g. poverty alleviation projects, via micro-enterprises based on value-adding processing of natural resources) have a strong environmental relevance, and tend to lie at the interfaces of several traditional scientific disciplines. The broad basing of geoscience has a number of dimensions, such as customized inputs of fundamentals of physics, chemistry, mathematics and life sciences, integration of geology, geophysics, geochemistry and geobiology, and linkage with cognate subjects, such as meteorology, pedology, land-use planning, oceanography, etc. The key words are synergy and flexibility. The following are the basic elements of the strategy to enhance the employment opportunities in geosciences through broad basing of geoscience instruction: (i) Identify broad-spectrum geoscience jobs (say, 30 - 50) based on the existing and emerging technologies, social, environmental and industrial requirements (e.g. drinking water, Integrated wasteland management, beneficial use of mine tailings and effluents, soil health), and also those that are needed to maintain India’s global position in cutting-edge sciences and technologies (e.g. Space science, exploration for hydrocarbons on the seabed, geotechniques). Experience shows that the candidates who have skills in Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS, and computers have the least difficulty to get jobs. Hence all geoscience instruction should include these skills in their framework, as there is a demand for them. (ii) Design about 100 course ensembles (several of which may be multi-disciplinary and may have to be given by more than one teacher; they may be PC based and linked to Internet) for the above jobs. Some courses may be planned at two levels – undergraduate and post-graduate. Preparation of course instruction materials, student grading and examination procedures in tune with the new approaches, have to be undertaken. (iii) Design possible curricular structures (say, a four-year Resource engineering course, a two-year M.Sc./ M.Tech. Course in Natural Resources Management / Earth & Space Sciences, Certificate / short term courses to impart special skills such as Remote Sensing and GIS, Evening courses and Distance education, etc.). Synergy is promoted through the linking of geoscience with other cognate subjects. For instance, the University of Hyderabad is contemplating the establishment of a School of Earth and Space Sciences (which incidentally will have access to Super-computing facility in the University, and which will be linked to the National Remote Sensing Agency and the National Geophysical Research Institute, both based in Hyderabad) not only to extend the frontiers of knowledge (e.g. assimilation and validation of hydrologic data), but also provide employment in the inter-disciplinary areas of earth, space and information sciences (e.g. simulation and optimization of transportation networks). That the recently instituted M.Sc. course in Natural Resources Management offered by the Mysore University, succeeded in attracting a significant number of students, is an indication of the viability of the proposed approach. Participatory learning of science at the high school level is best facilitated based on local environments (waters, soils, minerals and biota). This may not be formally called geology, but there is little doubt that geology graduates would be most suitable to teach such a subject. Also, short-term courses may be designed to acquaint the administrators with ecologically sustainable, economically viable and people-participatory ways of management of natural resources (e.g. drinking water, soil moisture and irrigation management, etc.) to enable them to take informed decisions. There should be institutional mechanisms for creating new courses or modifying the already existing courses, depending upon the market demands and societal needs. (iv) From the “smorgasbord” of courses, a geoscience department may choose appropriate course ensembles and specializations, and course structures (subject to satisfying the prescribed total course credits) to suit their academic and financial, resources, and biophysical and socio-economic situations. It is envisaged that there would be at least three kinds of course clusters (IITs and some well-equipped universities; medium universities; smaller departments which could still survive by specialising in some key areas, such as coastal resources, or agricultural geology). Those undergraduate departments of geology, which have only one or two teachers and are sub-viable, should be either merged to constitute viable units capable of offering instruction in employable knowledge and skills, or abolished, as their continuance serves no useful purpose. (v) The teaching programmes need to be integrated with the socio-economic development of the country. Systems of resource management could be operated at three levels, each of which involve the employment of geoscientists with relevant knowledge and skills: Level 1 – “Think-tank” activity, for integrating and optimizing the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of resource management, and coming up with various technoeconomic options to be discussed with stakeholders, Level 2 – Technology Transfer activity, by developing mechanisms and modalities for adapting the technologies to specific local situations, and Level 3 – Implementation activity, through micro-enterprises and other mechanisms. (vi) It has been found that even though some universities have departments of geology, geophysics, meteorology, etc., they tend to work as separate entities, with hardly any coordination among them. A mechanism has to be designed (such as, urging the university concerned to appoint a Coordinator for these departments) to facilitate the offering of the multi-disciplinary courses by the departments jointly. (vii) The need for the geoscience courses to have strong linkages with industry cannot be overstated. Experts from the industry should be persuaded to give short-term courses in the universities, which could be made use of a number of universities in a region. The central and state ministries of Water Resources, Environment, Agriculture, Mines and Geology, etc. as well as industries, should sponsor carefully selected candidates to study sort-term courses or M.Sc./ M.Tech. In Natural Resources Management, with earmarked specializations, in selected universities. This way the sponsoring organizations could assure themselves of the steady supply of well-qualified candidates from among which they could make their choice. (viii) The syllabus for all competitive examinations involving geosciences (e.g. CSIR/UGC fellowships, Geologists’ Examination, UPSC and PSCs tests, etc.) should reflect the proposed orientation. It would take a lot of planning and hard work during the next 3 – 5 years to bring about the envisaged paradigm shift. It is not a question of whether we could afford to do this, but whether we can afford not to do this. * Excerpts of the Consensus Document have appeared in J. Geol. Soc. Ind., v. 63, no.2, p.228-230, Feb. 2004, and are due to appear in Episodes, v. 20, no.1 ------------------------- Course Directors: U. Aswathanarayana (Mahadevan Centre, Hyderabad) & K.V. Subbarao (IIT, Mumbai); Course Coordinator: B. Venkateswararao (JNTU, Hyderabad) [Report on the Refresher Course for earth science teachers Focal Theme: Natural Resources Management, Environment and Employment, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kukatpally campus, Hyderabad, India] [Top of the page] |
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