IBM plans to rope in 48,000 teachers to STEM gap

IBM plans to rope in 48,000 teachers to STEM gap

NEW DELHI: IBM is aiming to sign up as many as 48,000 teachers in India this year for its Teachers Try Science programme, which seeks to narrow the gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Teachers Try Science is a website with resource of lesson plans for teachers to create and customise hands-on learning materials, with a focus on using practical work to understand scientific theories and concepts. 

It has seen a steady rise in teacher engagements in India — from 10,500 teachers in 2013-14 to 24,000 in 2015-16 and about 32,000 in 2016-17. IBM hopes to incorporate solutions to plug the gaps and work around the schedules of teachers, imbuing the practice with design thinking in the STEM space. 

“We are lacking in our STEM orientation and learning outcomes have been poor,” said Rumi Maitra, lead-corporate citizenship, IBM India. “The challenge is how to impact the ecosystem since teachers play a very critical role in the education system. We need to capacitate stakeholders in the educational process.” Quality and access of education are both lacking in India and IBM now has a more focussed approach towards STEM and it works with the public school system in terms of the programme, she said. 

The programme's content has been integrated with NCERT’S National Open Education Resources, and is available to teachers across the country in eight languages. It aligns itself with the study of science subjects in an integrated manner — using technology and a design perspective to arrive at solutions to real problems. 

The attempt is to encourage teachers to develop a generation of problem solvers and not just science learners. This, the company envisions, will encourage students to begin thinking of problems and solutions from a relatively young age, as they become adept designers of solutions for societal problems.