Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/26

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The articles written by Dr. Kalbag on science and technology are also very significant for two reasons. Firstly, they demonstrate a very different and rare point of view towards the role of science and technology in rural development. Secondly, they provide useful insights to understand his idea of education. He was utterly unhappy about the technological divide existing between "India" and "Bharat”. He felt this divide on two levels. First one was in respect of capacities of rural people and other was in respect of energies of research in science and technology being utilised for betterment of the life of rural people. As far as the first is concerned, in one of his article he has noted skill deficiencies of rural youth educated from the existing schools. These are as follows 1. Language: Apart from not knowing the sophisticated concepts and terms even in their own language, many have difficulty in understanding a chain of instructions. They can absorb only one or two at a time. (They need low flux density). 2. Lack of ability to measure common units of length, area, volume, weight, temperature, time etc. Manipulation of these numbers involving simple arithmetic calculations (viz. conversion of units, direct and inverse proportions, calculation of rate, concentrations etc.). 3. Inability to keep any records. 4. Non-familiarity with many operations that need minimum effort for training. Such observations have shaped Dr. Kalbag's experiments on education in which he tried to develop processes and sub processes to overcome such deficiencies. This aspect is elaborated in his articles such as "Skill development as base for education" (Ref: Chapter 9), "Technology delivery through the education system" < Rural Development Through Education System 21