This village teacher is the proud owner of three patents

Pained to see students circumscribed by rote system even for geometry and waning interest for the subject in Punjab,Singh says it all started with a cardboard figure that he had cut out to explain concepts of circle to his students. He then went on attaching scales and protractors to the figures,and thus started his geometrical progression to fame.

“Each apparatus comprises 15 devices that cover geometry lessons from classes VI to X. One device can explain 10 to 15 theorems by moving the attachments,” he claims.

The 50-year-old teacher has got a lion’s share of the eight patents granted so far with the help of Patent Information Centre (PIC),Punjab. Singh,who studied at a Hoshiarpur village school and comes from a humble background,is excited about the commercial attention his devices — titled Magic of Geometry and patented in 2003 and 2004 — have been drawing lately.

He has tied up with an Ambala-based manufacturer,and the Director General of School Education (DGSE) has proposed to distribute it to the government-run schools in Punjab under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. He is planning to meet Natraj stationery manufacturers,so that his innovation can have a wider reach.

DGSE Krishan Kumar,who took Singh to the Ministry of HRD,says,“The devices have been widely appreciated,and we are working out modalities for their manufacture and distribution in 18,000 Punjab schools. Every school will get one apparatus for its mathematics lab,and Singh has been told to prepare documentation to help teachers.”

According to Patent Information Centre (PIC) scientist Gurharminder Singh,a patent-holder gets 10 per cent royalty in Punjab and 15 per cent outside the state. Singh’s teaching aid costs Rs 3,000,but the figure can be brought down in case of large-scale production.

Singh says the patent is in the name of the institution,but as there is no policy regarding sharing of royalty in case of schools,he will be the sole beneficiary.

PIC in-charge Dr Neelima Jerath says innovators should come forward to get patents,which,if commercially exploited,can help them rake in moolah. The PIC offers technical,legal and financial assistance to the applicants,she adds.

Father of geometry Euclid had said,“There is no royal road to geometry”. For Singh,too,it took 14 years of labour to assemble the apparatus. “It took me one year to complete one device. My family and the school authorities never let my enthusiasm ebb,” says the science master,who has been teaching for the past 29 years in various village schools.

Given that awareness about patents is not very high in Punjab,a village high school teacher pocketing three sounds incredible. “Patenting was beyond my ken,besides I made the devices only to help my students. Once,a Joint Secretary,Education visited our school and was marvelled by my creations. After he told me to get a patent,I went to the office of the DEO,but got little help. Then I headed for the office of the DPI,where I came to know about the PIC at the office of Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST) in Chandigarh,which offered me all the support,” he says.