A Long Cherished Dream Fulfilled – Prof. M.R. Doreswamy

Speaking at the Valedictory of the Vijnana Mela 2022 organized for 2400 school students from government schools from Bangalore South District at the PES University campus, a visibly exuberant and happy Prof. Doreswamy, Advisor, Education Reforms, Government of Karnataka said that one of his long cherished dream to offer a full range of school educational services to government school students is fulfilled.  

 Providing opportunities to government school students in a range of experiential learning activities to ignite curiosity and professional ambition in their mind through lab experiments in physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology, quiz competitions with spot prizes, videos on history of science, Nobel Prizes, thematic posters and yoga practices – a balanced package of knowledge-Science and Skills – is a novel best practice introduced by him to contextualize school education in a contemporary yet the glorious historical settings of Indian contributions to science, Prof. Doreswamy observed.

Looking back to his early days as Adviser, Prof. Doreswamy recalled that from the beginning he was determined to reimage the school education services and align them not only to the National Education Policy (2020) but also on a path of growth and sustainability in terms of physical and academic infrastructure with pedagogic support for knowledge and skill development of students in government schools Prof. Doreswamy observed. He observed that suspension of educational services during COVID-19 viral pandemic was unfortunate but with commitment and innovative strategies to cover the academic loss, we can overcome all the deficiencies and deliver the expected services to government school students.

One solution was to enlist the support of Higher education institutions, particularly Universities to lend their academic expertise and resources to make good use of the academic losses and also expose the school students to the emerging trends in education and opportunities available.

In this context, Prof. Doreswamy lauded the dream Project of honorable Prime Minister Sri. Narendra Modi – VIDYANJALI – under which Universities are obliged to participate in academic development of government schools in their jurisdiction. The Science Fair organized by PES University has given a framework for the 70 Universities in the State to adopt with such improvements as they deem fit in the best interests of the students.

He pointed out that VIDYANJALI provides a dynamic framework to which new value additions could be made to expand the school education services and their impact by enlisting new players.

Accordingly, efforts have been made to involve all the Medical Institutions in the State Medical, Dental, Nursing and Pharmacy Colleges) to join the School Health Programme under the aegis of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and conduct free annual health checkups and offer primary healthcare reliefs to government school students in their jurisdiction.

Post Science fair and viewed from a broader perspective VIDYANJALI could be envisaged as a productive package for development of government schools, comprising:

1.   Academic empowerment by all universities

2.   Involvement of Medical Institutions for healthcare assistance

3.   Involvement of All universities to conduct Science fairs

Prof. Doreswamy requested the government to initiate steps in this direction and all universities to lend a helping hand to the government in the best interests of government school students.

‘I am also appealing to the Honorable Prime Minister to make it a national programme’, Prof. Doreswamy said.

Prof. Doreswamy sincerely acknowledged the help of Bharat Ratna Prof. CNR Rao, Dr. H.R. Nagendra, Chancellor, S-VYASA University, Honorable Ministers, Government of Karnataka Sri R. Ashoka, Sri K.Gopalaih and Sri Ravisubramanya, MLA, Basavanagudi for their support.

My special thanks to Sri B.C. Nagesh, School Education and Literacy Minister whose help was invaluable for the success of the Science fair, he said.

I will be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge the excellent support with dedication and hard work by the high officials, faculty and students of PES University. Similarly, the DDPI of Bangalore South and his staff have coordinated and helped to make the event a grand success. My sincere thanks and acknowledgements to them, Prof. Doreswamy added.

Shri Gopalaiah, Hon'ble Excise Minister of Government of Karnataka, who spoke before this, said that Doreswamy was the most qualified to lead the education reforms. He said that it is commendable that 2400 students have been shown the features of science through experiments in a simple way.

In my constituency, I have spent around 45 crores for school development and 130 teachers are being trained every month by expert subject experts, he said. The honorable Minister said that he is going to inaugurate a school where about 2600 students will study soon. About 730 young children are studying LKG / UKG in the 2 new schools in my constituency and behind all this is the influence of Dattu Abhiyan(school adoption campaign) of Sri Doreswamy, he said.

Mr. Ravisubrahmanya, MLA of Basavanagudi, said, "It is our good fortune that Doreswamy has extended his service to the entire education sector, not limited to the PES organization. He described the organized program as an innovative and diverse program, ranging from experiments to yoga practice.

He said that it is a historic thing that an educational institution of my constituency has spread to the world level.

The program started with a spectacular yoga performance by yoga experts from S-VYASA University. Registrar of PES University Dr. K. S. Sridhar welcomed the dignitaries and Dean of Student Affairs Dr. V. Krishna saluted. Senior Cardiologist Dr. Vijayalakshmi Balekundri and Bangalore South DDPI Sri Bailanjanappa were present on the dais.