VELLORE: ‘Have high aim, develop skills and work hard to reach it’ — this was a piece of advice given to students by retired district collector Dr M P Vijayakumar, who is at present advisor to the academic council of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti. Addressing over 1,200 students from 25 districts in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry at the inauguration of a two-day State Level Science Mela for school children at VIT university on Saturday, Vijayakumar said, “We need a scientific revolution in the State and make use of this platform to move forward.”‘Get rid of superstitions by acquiring scientific temper’ he said adding that only this could galvanise youngsters to march ahead in the world arena with confidence. Tracing the history of Indian science, which dates back thousands of years when the country had excelled in trade, commerce, agriculture, science and health, he pointed out that after 1,500 AD when the country was enslaved, people lost the scientific spirit. However, this period was utilised by western countries to make discoveries and scientific advances. Popularisation of these discoveries helped the West to imbibe scientific thinking that in turn helped them to grow fast, he pointed out.If we need to get our glory back, young minds need to be charged with the urge to excel from the school level. Melas like this should be fully utilised by youth to develop special skills, he said.Presiding over the function, VIT chancellor G Viswanathan underlined the need for the youngsters to evince interest in science as he felt that it was the basis of everything. Quoting a report on school children under the Programme for International Student Assessment in which 73 countries had participated, he said that India was ranked 72nd, with only the states of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh being assessed as good performers.School children from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan retained the top ten positions in the three categories of Reading, Maths and Science. “If we want to compete globally, government, school managers, teachers, students and parents should jointly take education to the next level,” he noted. He said the mela will be held at the national level from next year.Dr V M Chandrasekaran, T Rajendran, Correspondent to Shrishti Group of Schools, VIT vice chancellor Dr V Raju and VIT vice presidents Sekar Viswanathan and Shankar Viswanathan were present.
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