Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/78

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garage / workshop, the mechanic there probably has not gone to school for learning his 'engineering' skills. The house we live in has probably been built by masons, who did not have "vocational" classes. We find that all over in India, we probably get more services through people who learnt by working with another craftsman: they learnt while doing the job. This natural system then, is capable of teaching, even those whom the classroom has rejected. It is teaching them to a level, where they are the backbone of our labour force. Does it have something that we can adopt in our formal classroom system in order to improve it? Is this natural system of learning capable of being 'grafted on to our classroom system, to produce better results? Interestingly, there is one profession where the elements of the natural system are still preserved. Medical education is never given, without a real life hospital attached to the college and the prospective doctors learn while working with a practicing doctor in a hospital. Can we consider making it obligatory for a productive workshop to be put alongside an engineering college? Why not have an auto-engineering course linked to a regular service and repair garage? Going to the fundamentals, the Piaget Theory of learning suggests that one cannot learn in the classroom unless and until, one has learnt the prerequisite 'concepts' by experience in the real life, that is, the natural way. We suggest therefore a way of combining the two. Give the relevant experience on the basis of real life, through a practical exercise, that is, actually doing a job, even if empirically. Then raise the curiosity of the learner, through questions and explain the pertaining theory, if necessary in the classroom. This is our recommendation. • Rural Development Through Education System 65