Omar Azad Chowdhury

Omar Azad Chowdhury, an educator and successful inventor, is working to eliminate “science phobia” among school children in Bangladesh. He has developed teaching aids and a hands-on method that makes science fun for children, motivating them to better understand it and use it as a tool for their own development, with the ultimate goal of sparking greater innovation for the country’s economic development.

In Bangladeshi society technical expertise in the sciences can be the key to overcoming limitations on social mobility such as poverty and class. Omar’s program draws on this potential of science to improve the quality of life. From experience, he has observed that children develop a fear of science from a very early age. By teaching it in a way that makes science stimulating, enjoyable, and relevant, Omar exposes children to science learning in an entirely new way—one that stands in stark contract to traditional Bangladeshi educational practices characterized by regimented processes, rote learning, and an absence of creativity and fun.
The principle vehicle of Omar’s method is a mobile science laboratory that visits different schools. The lab facilitates experiments and workshops which enable children to experience science in its simplest forms and relate it to their curriculum and events in their everyday lives. Omar’s methodology allows him to reach a large number of children because his lab is designed from simple, easily available items. As a result, even the most remote areas and institutions with little or no access to expensive teaching aids will be able to replicate Omar’s method and bring children the scientific learning they need to succeed.

In Bangladesh, the education system is rigidly centralized. As in other areas of study, the central government establishes a curriculum for all subjects and dictates standard textbooks which both public and private schools must use. Teachers do not have freedom to adapt their materials or methods to the needs of individual students, nor does the system give them any incentive to do so. The notion of parental involvement in their children’s schooling is absent, and school authorities regard questions about school policy and teaching methods as unwelcome interference. This is also true for privileged private English medium schools that follow the United Kingdom school board examination system.

As a result, schools do not foster creativity but instead direct students to abstractly memorize facts and processes by rote. The rush to complete the syllabus in order to prepare students for board exams leaves little room for experimentation in teaching methods. Because the curriculum moves swiftly, children can easily be left behind, a common occurrence which can undermine their academic experience. This is particularly true for girls and rural students, where fear of failure leads to high rates of truancy and drop-outs.

While it is true that Bangladeshi schools are producing greater numbers of students for higher education in the sciences, engineering, and medicine, they represent a tiny fraction of the population, come primarily from comparatively advantaged/well-to-do urban families, and are succeeding in the sciences in spite of the antiquated education system rather than because of it. Instead of Bangladesh profiting from even these few, the income-generating labor force is primarily unskilled and exported. With the increase in automation, the demand for such unskilled labor will decrease, resulting in a downward trend in earnings. This in turn will affect the country’s ability to acquire technology and be competitive in the future.

Omar aims to fight this trend by increasing the number of successful science students. Omar’s strategy has several components: popularize science learning in schools, form student-led science committees in schools, and encourage “social inventing.”

Omar’s main strategy involves science workshops led by his organization, Social Advancement by Local Technology (SALT). During these sessions, science experiments and models are transported onto school premises where students can learn interactively. The workshops introduce novel but simple techniques to explain fundamental principles ranging from Newton’s laws, gravity, solar electricity, making magnets, producing paint and more, and linking these hands-on exercises with the various theories taught in class. Many exercises introduce children to useful practical knowledge such as production of oral saline in the event of diarrhea and testing salt for iodine, the lack of which results in health problems, particularly in the northern region where sea salt is not available. Using low-cost, easily-reproduced science aids, Omar makes use of over 40 curriculum-based experiments, 80 models for fun, and 30 participatory sessions. With these in hand he has been able to persuade school authorities and teachers of the benefits of activity-based science education.

After identifying students who exhibit leadership and initiative, Omar helped form the student-led Center for Science Studies (CSS) committee in the schools. These committees engage both students and administrators and will act as a catalyst for further nurturing of science in schools. Omar envisions them as gathering spaces for students and a mechanism for institutionalizing and positioning his method within the school system as it exists. In addition, the managing committee of each school will be invited as advisors, giving the committees access to them for financial support.

Another unique dimension to Omar’s work is his determination to nurture the innate creative capacity of the young to invent—in particular applying their inventor’s imagination to address local development needs using their own resources. He hopes to demonstrate that communities can become self-sufficient by generating their own technology and reducing dependence on imports. To date, 15 SALT members have already won national research and development awards. For the 2003-04 Science and Technology museum awards, 3 out of 22 winners from all over the country were from SALT—the highest number of winners from any club or organization in the country.

Through widespread media attention, knowledge of Omar’s project has grown. Word of mouth is facilitating the spread of his idea. Schools in Rangpur and a number of local science clubs in Sherpur, Pabna, Bogra, and Dhaka districts have expressed interest in learning about his program. With the help of the regional Science and Technology museum, Omar will tap into the museum’s extensive network of science clubs—more than 1300—as a secondary constituency. As his program grows, students who have graduated and other inventors with an affinity for the program sign on as supporters and staff. Many act as trainers and help spread the program while preserving its original mission.

To date, Omar has carried out the mobile science workshops in 28 schools reaching over 20,000 people comprising 60 percent students and 40 percent general public. Already, statistics show that participating schools are performing better in the sciences. In fact, schools are increasingly willing to pay for Omar’s program, further encouraging the growth and long-term success of SALT.

In 10 years Omar hopes to have transferred his methods and ideas to at least one club in each of the 460 thanas (administrative units) in the country, all of which work for improving the education system in their area. In the meantime, Omar continues to work directly with each school individually, proposing his program as a win-win business proposition: good for the student, for the school, and for the future of the country.

Omar grew up in the northern district of Gaibanda. From a very early age he developed an interest and knack for inventing; his first contraption was a slide projector when he was in second grade.

Omar was greatly influenced by a maternal uncle who was himself a social innovator. His uncle worked to organize poor women into groups to produce their own yarn from cotton. He established a handloom factory in an abandoned house and trained unemployed youth to produce textiles and make different textile products for sale, and would distribute seeds to farmers for cultivating cotton. He did not limit his efforts to his own locality but worked to spread his ideas to other areas. His uncle was the only person of his family to provide Omar with financial assistance for his research work.

After his secondary school certification, Omar entered the diploma engineering college in the neighboring district of Rangpur. However, he was forced to discontinue because of financial difficulties. He was unable to re-enter the system later since the education method bars students from reentering two years after passing SSC. He later finished his higher secondary certification.

After an attempt at poultry farming, Omar began inventing and manufacturing a better model of incubator. The growth of this invention landed him the President’s award in 1995, which over time gave him valuable experience with the public face of science, as well as business savvy.

Omar’s knack for fixing and inventing things started attracting young students. He saw their eagerness to invent and started advising and teaching them about different machines and gadgets. He also observed that though many of them were science students, fundamental deficiencies existed in their knowledge base. So, he started to organize a platform through which he could approach educational institutions and involve the students in breaking down the barriers to science education in the country.

Omar resides in Gaibanda with his wife, two sons and a daughter. Both his sons have developed different inventions and have been awarded research and development grants. His eldest son is now the secretary of a cultural organization called Sabuj Pata that was originally founded by Omar when he was a college student.