News : The Hindu

Sunday, science and success

• 
  Facilitating:H.S. Mani, Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute, IMSc, at the Sunday science class.Photos: S. S. Kumar
• 
  Dr. S.V.M Sathyanarayana.

Dr. Satyanarayana has inspired many with his approach to learning and teaching.

Momeen Ummal who is now doing her post-doctoral research in Pittsburgh remembers the classes she used to attend in Chennai which helped her take the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) exam. In 2003, she used to travel six kilometers to attend the class, but her teacher would come all the way from Kalpakkam. And that too without any fee or restriction on the students. These Sunday classes have helped many others…

“The classes started in 1996 when I was in IGCAR Kalpakkam. I was approached by some M.Sc students to help them solve problems and give them some tips on how to tackle competitive exams. We started in 1996 with strength of about 10 students,” says Dr. S.V.M. Satyanarayana, assistant professor from Pondicherry University. He conducts classes every Sunday at the Nuclear Physics Department, University of Madras. He travels from Puducherry to Chennai to train his batch of students in physics so that they may ace the competitive exams. Dr. Satyanarayana seems to invigorate in his students an interest for learning physics and also inculcate a method of learning it and it is not just memorising and going by formulae.

Some of his students clear the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET) or GATE with ease.

Every year a couple of his students also clear the CSIR exam for lecturership. This year six students from the class have cleared SLET, three have cleared Joint Entrance Screening Test (JEST) with good ranks and two have cleared GATE and one has passed the National Eligibility Test (NET). But this is not what Dr Satyanarayana counts as success. “People come from outskirts, suburban areas, as far as Madurai and Dindigul to study here. In fact they have been more regular than the Chennai students.” “This I consider a success… more than someone clearing CSIR, someone travelling 400-500 km every weekend for a year, just to attend the class, is a sign of success.”

When they start every year, on the third Sunday of July, after announcment in all colleges, about a 100 students join and the number dwindles and at the end of the year about 25 remain. Dr Satyanarayana’s initiative is supported by his friends Prof. Rajasekaran of Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Prof. H. S. Mani of Chennai Mathematical Institute, who also take turns to teach on Sundays.

Over here, the students are not just coached — “We are trying to teach our students how to learn… They learn the techniques and then they can learn on their own. It is hard to say they have to get it in one year or two years. Some get it in one month, some take six, some others two years,” says Dr Satyanarayana.

When we talk about his students, Dr Satyanarayana’s face shines with pride. His students who had taken up teaching as career have emerged as really good teachers. He mentions Nainar Mohammed, who is presently working in Government Arts College, Udumalpet. “Wherever he goes, he is a change by himself. He is so dedicated and motivated. He has started a similar class on Sundays in Udumalpet.” “I have a job to sustain myself,” says Dr. Satyanarayana adding that, “and teaching gives me its own energy.”

Students develop an interest for learning physics and also inculcate a method of learning it, and it is not just memorising and going by formulae.

Students develop an interest for learning physics and also inculcate a method of learning it and it is not just memorizing and going by formulae.