NEW DELHI: Over 5,000 "highly accomplished" scientists working with various departments under the Science and Technology Ministry will devote time to impart education to students of various schools and colleges in the country.
Announcing the decision, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said it would be "mandatory" for the scientists "in our departments to actually, formally, take lecture classes" in schools and colleges.
The Minister said it was decided after drawing inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interaction with school students on Teachers' Day during which he said, "each one of us engage ourselves in some kind of teaching".
"I am glad to announce today that we are going to make it mandatory for the scientists in our departments to actually, formally, take lecture classes in schools and colleges. It is a new concept for a country like India," Singh said.
The Minister said this kind of engagement would be "free of any honorarium" and it would be part of the duty the scientists have already committed to do.
"In order to further institutionalise it we have also devised a method...Make it mandatory that every scientist belonging to this department would expecting to devote at least 12 hours of actual teaching classes, lecturing," he told reporters at a meeting convened to announce NDA government's 100-day achievements in the field of Science and Technology.
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