Kamol Dey
Lack of publicity and lax management have plunged the National Museum of Science and Technology into obscurity.
The museum lags far behind its target to build a science-based society through displaying scientific and technological equipment to the citizens, specially the schoolchildren.
It also faces acute manpower crisis, with only one curator and four gallery assistants for its seven galleries.
The lone curator, Sukalyan Bachhar, on Thursday said, ‘Here, I am the only curator and three college teachers are on deputation.’
A gallery assistant said, ‘We do not feel enthusiasm as there is no system of promotion in the museum.’
‘Though regular maintenance is important for the equipment, there is hardly any maintenance,’ he said, pointing to the dust on a showcase.
He also complained that the telescope observatory station of the museum remained unused for long as it had no operator and the museum even had no electrician for the maintenance of its electronic devices.
A museum official said, ‘No director with science background was appointed to the museum since 2001 and the number of fair, seminar, symposium and exhibition to be organised by the museum on science and technology was in a declining trend since 2005.’
‘The government allocated Tk 32 lakh for the museum in 1990 and this year it is only Tk 25 lack. This poor funding seriously hampers holding of scientific exhibitions at the district level,’ he said.
The museum fails to attract a large number of spectators for lack of publicity though the museum has seven galleries, namely IT gallery, biology gallery, technology gallery, fun science gallery, physical gallery, space gallery and children gallery.
The biology gallery has a rare collection of an original skeleton of blue whale, petrified tree, gall bladder stone, granite, gangetic dolphin and ovarian tumour.
The technology gallery has a collection of old aircraft engine, electron microscope, gramophone, old aircraft engine, radar antenna and other interesting old machines while the fun science gallery has some interesting exhibitions and experiments that will easily charm the spectators.
The physical gallery displays some experiments that will help students to understand the theories like Newton’s Law, Boyle’s Law and Bernoulli’s equation of Aerodynamics.
Sky observation through powerful telescope is held on every Saturday and Sunday evening with taka ten for each visitor.
‘I am very pleased to visit this museum and here I can see many scientific apparatus,’ said Urmi Faruk Jannati Shamonty, a student of Agargaon Government Women’s College while she was visiting a gallery on Tuesday.
‘But I did not find any one to answer my queries about the scientific equipment placed on display and I cannot understand the functions of some apparatus,’ she complained during her visit at the biology gallery.
An official of the museum said one of the main goals of the museum was to act as a complement to science education of the institutional curriculums.
He, rejecting the allegation about their negligence in performing duties, also said the museum still tried to provide educational institutions with transport services if any school or college authorities applied for the service to the museum director.
The museum will soon launch a ‘Meusobus,’ a vehicle exhibiting scientific devices, for holding exhibitions across the country to encourage science education among the young generation, he added.
