The Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme proved to be landmark in the history of school education in India. It showes that it is possible to take a more democratic and plural approach to curriculum development. HSTP was started in 1972 by Kishore Bharati and Friends Rural Centre, presently covers nearly 600 middle schools spread over 14 districts of Madhya Pradesh. In terms of numbers, over 1,00,000 children study the HSTP curriculum every year and they are taught by 1,500 teachers.
The main focus of HSTP is on improving science education from Std 6 to Std 8. In contrast to the prevailing textbook-based method of rote learning, which negates all tenets of child-centred education, HSTP involves learning by discovery, through activities and from the environment. It emphasises the process of science, promoting scientific temper and making the child a confident life-long self-learner and creator of knowledge.
The HSTP created democratic, grass-root level structures to administer the programme, collect feedback from schools and provide on-site support to teachers. The Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme is an effort to bridge the wide gap between the National Goals and Policy Directives on Science Education and the actual reality of Science Teaching in our schools.
The directive perspective of the HSTP has been:
- To remould school science education to fulfill universally accepted national goals and educational objectives.
- Perceiving innovation as an integrated whole
- Innovating in the mainstream System
- Empowering the teachers
- Participation of Institutions of Higher Education and Research
- Building working Partnerships
