Let children touch science and mathematics

During my visits to several schools in villages and nearby semi-urban areas, I encountered a troubling contradiction at the heart of science and mathematics education.

- BY DR DEBAPRIYA MUKHERJEE Former Senior Scientist Central Pollution Control Board, India

Science and Maths

These subjects—meant to explain the natural world and sharpen human reasoning—were being taught almost entirely without laboratories, experiments, or meaningful connections to everyday life. Classrooms were filled with definitions, formulas, and copied notes, while practical spaces remained locked, underused, or treated merely as formalities for inspection days. Students could recite laws of motion or algebraic identities, yet struggled to explain why iron rusts, how soap removes grease, or why pond water turns muddy after rainfall. From the very beginning, science and mathematics were presented not as processes of understanding, but as exercises in memorisation.

This neglect is not confined to science alone; mathematics suffers from the same fate. Simple and powerful activities—verifying the Pythagorean theorem using paper cutouts, understanding ratios by measuring everyday objects, exploring symmetry with mirrors and paper folding, or demonstrating probability through coins and dice—are rarely conducted. Concepts that should be visible and tangible remain abstract, intimidating, and disconnected from daily experience. As a result, students begin to fear mathematics rather than reason with it, and science becomes a collection of facts rather than a way of thinking.