Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/7

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was to develop pre-vocational or vocational courses only. Such a conclusion would not only be unfortunate but will also amount to an unfair "reductionalism" of the theoretical foundation guiding Pabal's intervention in school curriculum. A deeper reading will bring out the basic concern that "good education has to be based on diverse experiences and, for this, real life is the best educator." While discussing the place of Piaget's theory of learning in his work-based curriculum on rural technology, Dr. Kalbag is persuaded to observe, “The process of learning cannot be expedited by receiving information from others. Where the prerequisite structures or concepts are not formed, we cannot teach anything based on these concepts. .....If at this stage, we pressurize the child, it will adopt a self-defense mechanism of reproducing to us what we wish to hear, without really understanding it. This is the beginning of rote learning." Imagine Mahatma Gandhi, the undeterred proponent of learning through productive work, visiting Pabal's experiment in late 1990s when the programme was operating in forty government schools in Maharashtra as integral part of the school curriculum. What would he have seen? He would have seen a group of girls from Class X building a 6 KVA-welding transformer, another batch of girls testing the blood groups of other students or a group of boys building two latrine blocks for the school. He would have further seen girls building a water tank and doing its plumbing. Before he is surprised, he would have found boys and girls together building a workshop shed of 900 sq. ft. (and costing it too) or making wheelbarrows and classroom benches for the school or the community. Another batch of girls would have shown Gandhiji how they made a cement slide and fabricated a steel seesaw and merry-go-round for the children of the local Balwadi. The work does not remain restricted to doing things for the school alone. Nothing would have pleased Gandhiji Rural Development Through Education System 2