Prof Sharma was speaking on the first day of 12th Punjab Science Congress hosted by Punjab Agricultural University under the aegies of the Punjab Academy of Sciences, Patiala, on Saturday.

Calling for converting information into knowledge, he said there is no dearth of information today in the country but the country lags behind when it comes to acquiring knowledge.

While speaking to Newsline, he said, “We are not converting the available information into knowledge, specially new knowledge. This is because there are very strong boundaries between different disciplines. They not only prevent the flow of knowledge from one field to another, there also limit the extent of thought process as we tend to think up to a certain level in one particular discipline.”

Elaborating on this, he said, “Even though a wall is necessary between two disciplines, they need to be made porous. Since all new knowledge happens at the boundaries of different disciplines, no creativity can come in from a particular field unless it is seen in reference to another discipline.”

“We should encourage some ‘holes’ to take place in the boundaries of these disciplines so that the walls become porous and our knowledge about them wider in perspective. That is why what we need today is porous boundaries among disciplines like physics, chemistry, maths, geography, agriculture or even a language so that a person can create new knowledge.”

“No new knowledge can be created within in the walls of a particular discipline. Besides, a very small section of students are now opting for sciences,” he asserted, adding that that was the reason why UGC needs to have a curriculum framework.

Talking about other reasons which are potential obstacles in the growth of science education in the country, he said,”At the school level, there is a high dropout rate. Consequently, a very small section of the students (8-9 per cent) is able to enroll in the colleges after finishing senior secondary education. And only one per cent of these students opt for science while pursuing higher studies.”