A school has decided to reach out to underprivileged girls in the districts by offering them exposure to Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education through scientific experiments.
The outreach programme announced on Thursday is part of the platinum jubilee celebration of The BSS School that was held at Kala Mandir.
"Many children with a natural inclination for science are deprived of practical exposure because of the lack of laboratories or experimental setups in their schools,” said Sunita Sen, principal of The BSS School.
“As a result, their interest and potential often go unfulfilled," she said.
The school is targeting middle school students — preferably girls.
"This is the age when children discover scientific acumen," said Sen.
"We don't want to be overambitious. We will start with five to six schools and gradually expand," she said.
Initially, the school plans to take 25 portable science kits to the children in villages for experiments.
The scientific experiments will be developed by the school faculty. The students of Classes XI and XII will demonstrate these experiments to the children.
"We want to engage our own students as well. By taking part in this initiative, they are empowering themselves by empowering others. It's a way of giving them a taste of the real world," said Sen.
The second phase of the programme could be to invite the girls to their school in Calcutta and give them a chance to work in their science laboratories.
An interest in science often drops if there is not enough means to pursue the subject, said Sen.
"In many of the rural schools, they don't have the funding to set up science labs. But there are simple experiments that we can take to them," said Sen.
The Class XI girls have also worked on an online foundational English course with students of Thakurnagar Nanda Mahila Vidyalay in West Midnapore.
"Eight of our students taught four children each from Classes VII, VIII and IX over a span of four months," she said.