A major area of concern is the gradual decline of practical work and experimentation at Primary secondary levels, even while the concept of activity-based teaching is yet to become a living reality in our elementary schools. The oft-repeated recommendation of integrating experimental work and theory teaching has not been realized because ofperceived lack of facilities and trained teachers in most of the schools. The degeneration of rigour in practical examinations has also lent weight to theargument to first remove them from the ambit of evaluation and then to trivialize or totally remove them from teaching practice itself. Often practical difficulties are cited as an excuse for this lack of commitment and awareness that experiment is fundamental to doing and learning science. Even well-endowed schools have tended to give only cosmetic importance to laboratory work in the prevailing scheme of things.