I heard that some (dummy) schools across India skip the lab component of school education. If this is true, it is a major disservice to the intellectual development of a student and should be curtailed.
Note: a class demo/YouTube video cannot compensate for a lab.
At the heart of becoming good at building things is to experiment. A lab is a place to do such experiments, and in there, a student can think and learn by using their mind and hands. A lab is not just about equipment, but a form of thinking, which develops a(p)ttitude.
This form of thinking is important not only for scientific pedagogy but also for the development of skills complementary to what one learns in a classroom.
There is no serious education in STEM without exposure to a laboratory (including maths/computer science)
Downstream in a society, a culture of lab is closely connected to thinking, questioning, tinkering, building, testing and manufacturing. And eventually economics.
A culture of experimental thinking is fostered in a lab.
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