BANGALORE: It seems that many schools in the country do not have fully equipped science laboratories for students for senior students in class 11 and 12, according to a survey done by Unified District Information System on Education done on 2.4 lakh secondary and senior secondary schools has found reports Times of India. For classes 9 and 10, where an integrated science module is taught to students, over 58 percent schools don't have the requisite labs.

"This is an atrocious state of affairs," says a sad Professor Yashpal, scientist and former chairman of the UGC. He was instrumental in setting up India's space programme in 1972 and has been one of India's most well known science communicators.

"Everybody knows the importance of labs in science teaching. But learning science has been reduced to mugging up things. Policy makers should step in immediately to rectify this situation," he said.

For teaching science, the labs need to be well equipped around the world, but the shocking state of science teaching at the school level contrasts with the high profile science education and research institutions at the top, like IITs, IISc, and others.