Mumbai University honours Chemistry Prof Shendage with lifetime achievement in education

From his childhood days in the rural fringes of Sangli to being an internationally published scholar, VG Vaze College's Mulund-based professor Dr Suresh S Shendage has always held a faith in commitment towards education, which has paid him back with the 'Ideal Teacher – Urban' award conferred by the University of Mumbai. Shendage is being felicitated today, along with other faculty members on the university's Kalina campus.

Shendage realized he had to be a teacher right from childhood days when he went to a one-teacher primary school near Sangli. Being the most intelligent student of Std III, Shendage was compelled to teach younger children single-handedly. Shendage even began teaching his own peers for a few hours in Std IV. Subsequently, he got his MSc in Chemistry and BEd from Kolhapur and moved to Mumbai for education. Now, he is a research mentor and department head of Chemistry at VG Vaze College.

Wherever he happens to be in classrooms, Shendage is a firm believer in the method of enquiry-based and interactive learning. In a conversation with mid-day, he explained, "I tend to start with splitting the students into groups, assigning each group a topic, and asking them to present it to their peers under my guidance. The audience throws their questions at the presenters, and the entire class becomes involved."

While teaching Analytical Chemistry to his higher-level students, Shendage believes technical subjects cannot be "siloed" (entwined) from everyday life in society. "When a noodle firm came under fire for dubious ingredients in 2015, I brought the case to my class.". My students told me about how you would have to go about sampling the noodles, what tools you'd have to utilize to find out about what's inside, and how you'd make a decision. It's wonderful that we can learn that chemistry is involved in our lives, beginning from when we brush our teeth up to when we sleep," said Shendage.

Aside from the active support from the college, Shendage also arranges quiz competitions and research conference presentation slots for his undergraduate students as well. So far, Shendage has 32 published articles, many of which have attained an Impact Factor of 9-9.5. He is also a board of studies member of a few other city colleges and the NEP Nodal Officer of his own college, helping in designing assessment patterns and value education curriculum under NEP.

University of Mumbai Outstanding College Awards (Urban and Rural Divisions) for 2023-24 and 2024-25 and the Ideal Principal and Ideal Teacher awards at college and university division levels, Savitribai Phule Ideal Teacher Award for women and meritorious non-teaching staff award will be distributed at the Kalina campus today.