970 



Participants are selected and funded according to AID administra- 

 tive procedures. Internal NSF review committees evaluate credentials; 

 Erospective consultants receive a low-level security check ^^^ and must 

 e approved by the Civil Service Commission, the New Delhi office 

 of the Agency for International Development, and the Indian Govern- 

 ment.^^* Consultants are authorized air tickets prepaid in foreign 

 eurrenc}^, some miscellaneous travel expenses and travel per diem, 

 and consultant fees. The Foundation provides each consultant with 

 a detailed information sheet containing information on travel and 

 living conditions. Preparation for consultants includes also a 1-2 

 day orientation provided by the NSF/New Delhi staff. 



The Governments of India and the United States both contribute 

 funds. Indian contributions are in the form of a trust fund set up 

 by the Government. Since initiation of NSF activities in 1966 to 1970 

 the rupee allotment for the program has totaled the equivalent of 

 U.S. $1,822,168; U.S. AID dollar funding from 1966 to 1971 has 

 totalled $3,451,058.2«* 



The NSF believes that the program has been successful. Gordon 

 Hiebert, NSF official in charge of administration, reports that while 

 AID attempted to teach U.S. science in India, the Foundation has 

 developed and taught science education uniquely related to the 

 Indian situation, a more successful approach. Additional program 

 accomplishments were described to the Congress in 1969: 



The follow-up program has the objective of improving the training of teachers 

 of science in India, and improving the materials they use in their teaching. Cur- 

 rent and proposed activities include: Establishing better relations between the 

 universities and their constituent colleges (where science teachers are trained), 

 and between the university-college system and the school system; helping Indian 

 scientists write new textbooks in the sciences,, mathematics, and engineering; 

 improving laboratory experiments and equipment; and making science films 

 available. . . . Programs have been estabhshed to lielp with the preparation, 

 design, and production of laboratory and demonstration equipment in India 

 from indigenous materials. 2"* 



The Foundation has found that many of the special curricula 

 developed for India can be usefully applied in the United States and 

 in other countries. For instance, a special program developed to train 

 Indip.n engineers in entrepreneurship has been adapted in several 

 locales in this country. NSF reports also that many of the Americans 

 who served in the Indian program have later made useful contri- 

 butions to other AID-financed science education programs: in Nepal, 

 administered b}^ the University of Illinois; in Afghanistan, adminis- 

 tered by the Teachers College, Columbia University; and in Malaysia, 

 administered by the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science.^^^ 



The American contribution to this cooperative program was cut 

 in 1970. Budget cuts in this country forced suspension of the funding 

 of Americans to participate in the summer institute phase of the 

 program; Indian teachers and scientists have been given complete 

 direction of tliis activity. Small numbers of consultants will still be 

 recruited to assist with the curriculum development phase of 

 operations.^^^ 



2B3 Interview with Gordon Hiebert, Office of Tnternational Programs, National Science Foundation. 



29< NSF, "NSF/AID Indian Program-Preliminary Fact Sheet," August 17, 1970. 



295 Data supplied by Office of International Programs, NSF. 



"» National Science Foundation Authorization, FY 1970: Hearings, Vol. II, op^ clt., p. 582. 



s" Interview, op. cit. 



»w Idem, and NSF, Annual Report FY 1970, op. cit., p. 05. 



