A ₹15-lakh worth state-of-the-art telescope is gathering dust at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls, Nadakkavu. A. Pradeep Kumar, MLA, Kozhikode North, who played a major role in the development of the school through the PRISM project couldn’t help but criticise the institution on this.
‘Special request made’
It was in 2010 that the Kerala Science and Technology Museum and Priyadarshini Planetarium, Thiruvananthapuram, provided a state-of-the-art telescope to the school. “The museum had planned to provide telescope only to districts that did not have a planetarium. It was under my special request that one of them was allotted to GVHSS, Nadakkavu, though Kozhikode already had a planetarium, under the condition that it be used to create basic awareness on astronomy among the general public,” the MLA said.
The telescope formed the basic infrastructure for the C.V. Raman Centre for Basic Astronomy at the school. “Even the planetarium here did not have such an advanced telescope then,” he said. The aim was to develop scientific temper among students, not only at this particular school, but neighbouring schools as well. However, the telescope was rarely used since then, he added. During the opening of the RMSA Science Exhibition at the school as part of the Kerala School Sastrolsavam recently, the MLA unleashed strong criticism and demanded that the school authorities make use of the facility to the best advantage of the society.
Same is the case with other schools in the city where costly equipment purchased under various projects are gathering dust. “Many schools have IT equipment that have rarely been used. This is mainly because the teachers are ill-equipped to operate them”, said M. Radhakrishnan, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Education of the Kozhikode Corporation. However, the MLA said that it was rather about the interest of teachers. “The teachers at GVHSS had been trained on the use of the telescope when it was installed,” he said.
Training for teachers
Meanwhile, the Kozhikode Corporation has made arrangements to train the teachers in government schools in the Corporation limits on the use of such equipment.
The project would be implemented with the help of the Regional Science Centre, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
