The CEBS Opportunity

Before starting the discussion on the purpose of the club, let us tell you a little about our institute. UM-DAE CEBS is a small community, and the typical strength of a class (second year onwards) is around 10 students. We have a very limited number of in-house faculty members. Most of the courses are taught by visiting faculty that are either superannuated or currently active researchers at leading research and academic institutes of Mumbai, like BARC, TIFR, IITB, HBCSE and NIRRH. Many of our professors encourage asking doubts, include historical as well as recent developments of the subject, and give glimpses of how that knowledge can be applied in research.

However, each student is different and has their own set of experiences. Many incidents since their childhood have shaped their surroundings and outlook. Let us go beyond the standard facts and opportunities associated with the colleges (including CEBS), and instead look at these opportunities from the students’ point of view.

Evaluation

Before joining the institute the students have already seen the environment of the school (and often coaching classes). There, a lot of emphasis is given to solving questions to get the correct answer. Questions can serve as a great method to learn a concept, because then one can put together different ideas learnt in the chapter to find an answer. Many professors say that they ask their students to try solving as many questions as possible. So questions themselves may not be a problem. But our over-reliance on them to evaluate everyone can be a problem. We can see this in the case of language courses, where it is slightly more evident.

Suppose it is asked to translate a given sentence into another language. It’ll provide students with an opportunity to practice the vocabulary and the correct use of prepositions and cases. But ask a few language learners about their experiences. Some of them find these questions to be actually helpful (which provides more evidence that questions themselves are not the actual problem). But there are many others who have found that their learning methods are quite different. How about actually talking to a native speaker? That is a similar method by which one can learn more, just like translating. But consider a scenario where it is said that whoever is not able to talk to a native speaker for 10 minutes straight (or is unable to translate a paragraph), would not be exposed to any literature in that language! It is its beauty expressed in literature (and other forms) that encourages people to engage with the language in the first place. It is something by which maybe someone previously uninterested in the language can become interested. Why would anyone impose such conditions?

They are imposed mostly because of administrative factors. Some people associated with the administration of language education are aware of limited seats in the colleges, limited number of teachers, etc. Hence the questions are made to be as objective as they can be, so that there’s one criterion to evaluate everyone. Performance in such exams may also (seem to) alter the job prospects of those students. Many others associated with language education who have experienced the same system in their childhood are oblivious to this reality and thereby end up supporting it. Slowly the joy of learning that language and the knowledge one can gain from its literature become unimportant for the students. There are talks about which companies pay more to multilinguals, if it could be used in a CV, and so on, but not so much about if someone just wants to understand a particular couplet by Rumi or Kalidasa. This brings ‘shoulds’ into one’s life (one should be multilingual to get that job). There is nothing inherently wrong with becoming multilingual to get a job. But to understand what is wrong with it in the present context we need to take a deeper look at what constitutes education.

Availability of resources

If students come across a different school, teacher or coaching institute where the answers to these questions (i.e. the ones asked in exams) are explained better, they would realize that the previous school, coaching or teachers were not as good. This will also increase their chance to get good grades and eventually the possibility of getting a job that pays more. Thus, one of the most apparent objectives for students is to get well prepared for the competition ahead. Maybe the teachers at the new place are more aware of what kind of questions are asked in exams and have better resources to address those questions. This is why people search for better schools and teachers in terms of how successful they are in securing seats for students in colleges.

The Unknown

But there is a larger problem that cannot be necessarily solved by those schools or coaching institutes that have proven themselves to be better than others in securing seats in colleges. This is primarily because of the nature of the problem, it consists of something very subjective yet lying at the core of education. In real life, although we can have some idea of which resources to use and which directions to go in, there is always some uncertainty about how things will turn out. One can not have a pre-planned, completely foolproof trajectory for driving a car. There are far too many variables to be taken into account, and one needs to be aware of their surroundings to make use of new opportunities as they come. Still, we do see people around us who can drive well. Of course, knowing how to use brakes and accelerator is useful, but driving is not just about using these things separately. It’s a combination of many such techniques developed over time by applying them in different situations. If we are interested in learning it, someone who knows how to drive better than us can guide us. Then we can try to drive for some time and improvise and make those techniques our own. Driving a car is a real-world problem, and if someone wishes to train others then the driving teacher would need to show confidence in them and try to recognize and provide exactly the help they need. Compare it with “if you’re unable to turn the car in the radius of 2 m, we won’t let you drive.”

Thus the second problem is that the students are made to believe that there are ‘proper’ answers and methods to solve any question, because there are ‘proper’ questions. That everything is (or should be) always sorted for them. “What exactly do they want from me? Oh, I need to turn the car in 2 m radius?” If we notice the nature of our actions of this type, we find that they were something we were supposed to do. On the other hand, if there’s something we want to do, a certain sense of incompleteness also accompanies the idea. It’s not clear how to arrange the furniture in our room, we can try out different arrangements and see what we like. We can also take inputs from others around us if we wish to. But it all starts from the question of whether we want to make the room tidy? If not then making the room tidy becomes a routine job. It is this unknown feeling which attracts us to learn or do something original.

After a chapter, students are often asked to answer some questions. But none of those questions has been asked by the author of that story! The point of the story was never to ask questions after it (or at least we have never read one). It was to convey profound ideas and experiences which expand our view of the world, which “makes our life in harmony with all existence”, as Tagore puts it. Better resources can help us with answering those questions in a manner that suits the correct way. But they may not help us in facing the vulnerabilities when we are trying to create something in the real world. To help students recognize what goes in the process of creation, our teacher, school or book must be truthful to themselves, a requirement which can be fulfilled only if someone wishes to do so1.

When a discovery is made, it comes as a new perspective, a clarity out of the mess of data, like a tidy room. In The last leaf I (a member of the club) particularly experienced how an act of true love can give hope to a dying person. I could only imagine what could have been going on in the mind of the old man, who took the initiative to paint a leaf in the storm. But there can be someone to whom something else struck, a very different aspect than what appealed to me! However, because of our existing evaluation system, both of us are asked to explain the relevance of the title with the proper use of black and blue pens. Not that doing the latter is not good; how wonderful an opportunity it would be for someone willing to write about the title, and their knowledge and love for artistic writing might only add to its beauty. The person can utilize this opportunity since this is something they would like to do. But here’s where the subjectivity lies, and the author of the story rightly respected it. That’s why he didn’t ask us these questions, he just took the initiative to express what he found beautiful in his exploration. Now it is upon us to recognize and express our thoughts. Maybe some don’t feel like doing anything with the title or even any part of the story, so be it! It’s impossible to live without being involved in any action, so people can ask themselves what else they would like to do at the moment.

Constance Garnett was a 19th-century translator who translated a large part of Russian literature (especially Chekhov’s and Dostoevsky’s works) into English. She often skipped sentences she couldn’t understand, and could never speak in Russian! But her works help even today’s English readers to read the works of those Russian writers, and served as a model for later translators. We’re not aware if anyone told her that she should do it (even in the name of responsibility), or that she should first know the various verbs required for the translation. She just felt a need to translate it and then figured out all that.

Such a translation is not a multiple-choice question. It is not just a matter of time that if one follows the syllabus properly then they’ll be able to do it well. It’s very much a matter of interest. There is no syllabus someone else has set, and no evaluation by someone else. Everything is in our hands: from taking the initiative, to figuring out and implementing the plan, and then improvising upon it to come up with the translation. It’s difficult and exciting at the same time!

Unknown in Science

Very similar are the perceptions of students about science. Just as there are resources in language learning which guarantee a certain level of proficiency, there are resources in science education guaranteeing that they can help ‘crack’ (aka hack) a particular exam. In our society being educated has become synonymous with cracking these exams. But we have just discussed what actually these kinds of exams contain.

Just as there’s only one ‘The Last Leaf’ that has been written, there’s (probably) only one earth that we live in, only one sun, etc. And just as our perception of the story can differ, our perception of natural phenomena and their description can also differ. But students are often given a perception of completeness. As if the ‘lower levels’ of understanding a phenomenon are completely polished, and only ‘higher level’ problems are remaining, “which I will be able to access with time if I follow these lower-level descriptions properly”.

Something we have learnt being at CEBS is - there’s no such thing as a complete, absolute description. Maybe the amount of molten metals inside the earth is not uniform spatially, maybe the magnetic field created by the flow of these fluids somehow guides migratory birds to find their way, maybe there’s no such thing as a force of gravity (I am making stories now, but why not!). Not that trying to access the ‘higher level’ problems is inherently bad2, but they’re accessed with even more excitement if we acknowledge our (and everyone else’s) incomplete understanding of these ‘basic’ concepts. And similarly in other natural phenomena - a nail made up of only iron atoms won’t rust even in the presence of air and moisture, there must be a few copper atoms in it to cause rusting3. There’s always another level of detail, possibly more fundamental and which could be unseen by everybody!4 We’ve seen textbooks claiming and people adamantly believing that “speed of light is a constant in vacuum” means “it does not depend upon the speed of the source.” But even the speed of sound does not depend upon the speed of the source! Many times such discussions are not very important to solve problems in exams. We can indeed try to do something that interests us and which requires this ‘basic’ understanding (being able to manipulate equations, for example). But it’s upon us (whoever we are, a student, a faculty, or anyone) to recognize our incomplete knowledge and genuine questions about these basic things. This issue has much more significance than the lack of resources themselves, since then even if the resources are available they would not be used well.

Effect on mindset

Gradually the administrators introduce more topics in the syllabus and one is required to master certain techniques in a limited amount of time. It’s a separate topic of discussion whether such sprints are the only way for students to secure their seats in colleges5. But to know what to do there and how to use the resources it offers is not told at all by such sprints. Since many students have learnt that being educated is synonymous with performing well in such exams, chances are that people may continue to do this even after reaching college. There have been students who got the opportunity to study in the best colleges of the country, and yet the thought of following the norms set by the society could not leave their mind. It is a kind of threat, “Do what the norm is otherwise you’ll lag behind and be outcast soon.”

One can learn a number of name reactions in class and the techniques to know which organic product will be formed in larger quantities, and still be unwilling to form a product in the lab if it is not a coursework requirement6. This is probably because there’s no ‘actual’ unknown in their process of learning, the only unknown is that which they have not yet covered in the syllabus7.

In the absence of excitement of discovery, people tend to take the opportunities presented before them for granted, and complain endlessly about every other real-world problem without trying to understand or be willing to solve it. One can start considering things in their to-do list to be a one-time headache8. “I just need to get admission in X college or get Y job and everything will be all set afterwards”. But there are no one-time events that ascertain everything will go happily (or sadly) afterwards9. The resources can only give us an opportunity to explore what lies within us. But to be able to accept those resources with humility, and act upon our genuine ideas in the pursuit of our own curiosity, is completely in our own hands. When people are unable to recognize and pursue their own interests, it impacts their approach towards every aspect of their life.

Specific problems in colleges

Thus, before the students come to the institute they have already formed notions about what kind of education they need to get. People have been advised beforehand, “You can do whatever you want for the rest of your semester, just pull some all-nighters before the exam and you’ll score good enough”10. Some tend to trouble the newcomers and other students in the name of ‘fun’ and ‘interaction with juniors’. Some others may feel bored and unexcited, maybe because their wish to study, say, fluid mechanics or poetry, as a new college student has been covered by the dust of assignments and evaluation as time passed. Students of the past become faculty members of today, and their recruitment procedure could have similar problems as what the entrance exams taken by students had. The students sense the effects of all these problems on themselves more, since now they have more freedom than they had in school and can actively form opinions about where their time goes. These specific issues are manifestations of the larger problem discussed so far.

Seeking “solutions”

In the absence of an environment where people are happy exploring and expressing themselves, it can be quite scary for students to pursue their curiosity, especially when they’ve experienced such a threatening system so far. We can attempt to solve this real-world problem at both administrative and communal levels. But before helping anyone else, we need to detoxify ourselves. We have to recognize and do whatever we actually find interesting, despite all the things that are demanded from us, and regardless of all the fancy ideas the world has planted before us. We believe that pursuing our own genuine curiosities is a necessary and sufficient condition to help others pursue their genuine curiosities. We may not be able to design trajectories for everyone, but we can still be together while pursuing things alone. It makes our individual journey less scary.

CBS Science Club

We are volunteers from various streams and batches of the institute, and the motive of all our events is to build the same kind of supportive environment that we talked about. Though it may sound ‘essential’ to acknowledge and address these problems, we still wish to engage in them solely out of our interest. There’s just so much that’s unknown - why exactly we want to contribute, how we will do that, how to coordinate with like-minded people, what are our frontiers here. Of course, what is exciting for an individual member is very context-dependent, but still, there are times when we end up creating things together.

In Rendezvous, for instance, we invite researchers and students so that all of us can have free conversations centred around a particular scientific topic. When we invited Prof. Rama Govindarajan from ICTS, Bengaluru to speak with us, we talked about how we can try to predict the weather using computer simulations and equations, and then the discussion went around many adjacent questions. We wanted to get introduced to the field, understand what the real problems are, and how and to what extent people have tackled them. And whenever there was something that didn’t fit someone’s picture of the story, we tried to discuss that doubt. Certainly there were and would’ve been many loopholes in implementing our individual ideas. We wanted to have the session with her because at least some of us were curious to do so! Many things were unknown, both about organizing the session and the lessons each of us learnt from it. There’s nothing that is absolutely correct here, every action or statement comes with its own uncertainties and possibilities of further exploration and discussion. And thus there’s no hurriedness of finishing it quickly and moving on to something else. On the other hand, we have already seen the problems when we falsely give people the notion of correct answers. It brings with it the notions of boredom of journey (and hence closing our eyes while travelling) and the hurriedness to reach the destination.

This is indeed why we have a science club in a science institute. We wish to explore our paths of learning and communicating science while feeling safe and enabled, and provide just that environment to others around us.







  1. How many essayists whose essays we read in textbooks wrote them for an exam? And how many students who score well end up liking reading and writing essays? ↩

  2. Just like becoming multilingual to get a job isn’t inherently bad. ↩

  3. So how does rusting actually occur? ↩

  4. The present article is no exception. ↩

  5. Some people in CEBS education administration told us that they understand the problems but don’t have any alternatives. They’re actually asking for suggestions. ↩

  6. Indeed, many students who score well in organic chemistry in school do not end up doing anything related to it in college. ↩

  7. But did you know that the actual mechanism of the Grignard reaction was unknown until January 2020? ↩

  8. An abused phrase in this context is ‘managing time’, but ‘managing’ has positive connotations. Managing does not neglect independent pursuit. ↩

  9. “…लेकिन उसके चेहरे पर आनंद-विकास की जगह भविष्य की शंका झलक रही थी, जैसे कोई विद्यार्थी परीक्षा में उत्तीर्ण होने के बाद चिंता में ग्रस्त हो जाता है। उसे अनुभव होता है कि वह बाँध जो संसार रुपी नदी की बाढ़ से मुझे बचाए हुए था, टूट गया है और मैं अथाह सागर में खड़ा हूँ।” - Sevasadan ↩

  10. This is not bad advice per se, in the sense that people can get away with formalisms asap and then spend their time doing things they like. The only issue is when people aren’t helped to recognize what they actually like, they end up following the mainstream ways of ‘enjoying’ their time. ↩