I am referring to the press article, which appeared in l?express newspaper of 5th June 2007 under the title ?Teaching of Physics in the accused box?. It is most regrettable to say that this article is more sensational than fact. It makes me doubt the reliability of your sources of information that have permitted you to go far beyond the existing reality of science teaching at both primary and secondary school levels.

Through this article, I would like to apprise you of the realities as they exist in our schools presently and which may be far from your understanding.

1. I am referring to the school days of my time when probably you were still a kid or a student. Students taking science at that time were classified among the better ones because every body, even our friends who were studying the classics side, recognised that engaging on the science side was out of their proportion. There were no class demonstrations on whichever topic was being discussed in class. Very often it was left to our imagination to realise how things worked. We were so scared of our teachers that, leaving subject interactions aside, looking at them in a queer way to try to transmit to them our difficulty in understanding topics being discussed could get them out of their mental balance. Despite the difficult times that we had, we grouped ourselves into small cells of five students and furthered discussions to clarify matters that were beyond our comprehension. I still recall the lack of proper reference books in the library and how the librarian used to scare us away as we were using his leisure time for research. Many children of that generation have become good doctors, engineers, barristers, physicists... That was a time. We, the products of such a ?diseased? system have been producing people of our calibre, and better still, you are now producing teachers whom you are criticising yourself.

2. I fully agree that there is complete dissonance between students of my time and those of today. But to affirm, thereon, that the state of teaching in class today has become so dull, boring, a one-way traffic that students nowadays are dropping science borders on a badly banked corner. Gentlemen, being in the domain of physics, you will definitely gauge the meaning of my expression.

3. Gentlemen your report, as gathered from the newspaper, makes it obvious that you are among the best physics teachers of the island. Benefit of doubt granted. With my long years of experience in the teaching of physics at secondary level, I have always laughed at myself every time I have fiddled with the meaning of a good, not to say the best, science teacher. From a teacher?s point of view, science teaching demands much subjectivity, with all its orthogonal dimensions. I am not going to challenge this view because you have been training teachers for quite some time now, before they join the service in either the primary or secondary sector. But with regard to what you have been claiming, that science teachers have dried out when it concerns the proper teaching of their subjects. I am tempted to claim back the challenge for obvious reasons. To adjust myself to the blatant fiction of the report I am urged to speak out a blunt truth that, ultimately, you are the makers of teachers who are/will be engaged in the profession and you are now out to lay critics on your own methods imparted to teachers engaged in science teaching at both levels. Is this not an example of spitting on your own face ?

4. Questions !

(i) Who trains teachers in this country ?

(ii) You claim that physics teaching must be carried out in parallel with class demonstrations. Do you do this at the MIE?

(iii) How many equipped labs exist at primary and secondary level to carry out class demonstrations so that theory teaching goes in hand with practicals?

(iv) To what extent can our teachers carry out class demonstrations under the constraint of a syllabus, which in itself, has no end?

(v) When have you apprised teachers, through the local newspapers or any educational magazine, of your findings concerning your claim about the shortcomings in physics teaching?

(vi) Have you ever communicated your findings to the ministry of Education and Human resources so that the latter could engage in corrective measures following your claimed failure of teachers to engage in ideal physics/science teaching?

(vii) How much experience do you, gentlemen, have in class teaching at primary and secondary levels? It is rightly said that that you cannot shift the blame on the shoulders of your friend so long as you have not walked a mile in his boots.

(viii) Have you ever made an auto-criticism of your teaching methods?

To be frank with you, I will only say that we are all sailing on the same ship and if it sinks we all sink together. Therefore there is no reason to claim to be better when others can be better than you. Everybody in this sector is, by all hard means, trying to uplift the education system and quality of education. But, therefrom, to claim to be a better horse for the race along an unknown track is just a futile move, not worth betting.

<B>N. GOPEE</B>

Education Officer, Physics Dr Maurice Curé National College