WORK EDUCATION

RATIONALE

In the new curriculum framework (2000) work experience has been termed as work education and thus makes it an integral component of education. As such it would provide both knowledge and skills through well-structured and graded programmes, which would help them on their entry into the world of work. Work education is a distinct curricular area for providing children with opportunities for participation of social and economic activities inside and outside the classroom, which would enable them to understand scientific principles and procedures involved in different tyeps of work. The productive manual work situations were to be drawn from the area of health and hygiene, food, shelter, clothing, recreation and community service. The competencies to be developed in this field should include knowldege, understanding, practical skills and values through need based life activities. Pre-vocational courses should get a prominent place at this stage.

Work edcucation aims at restoring dignity and respect to all types of manual work, promoting self-reliance in meeting one's daily needs and those of one's family and community, increasing productivity through the development of proper work skills and values, and promoting commitment to the welfare of the society through suitable programme of social work or community service.

Objectives

The major objectives of work education at the Secondary stages are:

• To help the pupils to develop essential knowledge and understanding in terms of :

- identifying needs of the self, family and community in respect of food, helath and hygiene, clothing, shelter, recreation and social service.

- acquainting themselves with productive activities in the community;

- understanding facts and scientific principles involved in various forms of work;

- knowing the sources of raw materials and understand the use of tools and equipment in the production of goods and services; understanding the utility of productive work and  services to the community;

- understanding the needs of a technologically advancing society in terms of productive processes and skills;

- understanding the processes of planning and organization of productive work;

- conceptualizing their role in productive situations;

- developing abilities for self-evaluation of performance and for entrepreneurship.

• To help the pupils to develop skills:

- for the selection, procurement, arrangement and use of tools and materials for different forms of productive work;

- to observe, manipulate and participate in work practice;

- for the application of problem-solving methods in productive work and social service situtions;

- for greater productive efficiency.

- to enhance their working competence sufficiently so as to enable them to earn while they learn;

- to use their creative faculties for devising innovative methods and materials.

• To help the pupils to develop proper attitude and values in terms of:

- respect for manual work and regard for manual workers;

- socially desirable values such as self-reliance, helpfulness, cooperativeness, teamwork, perseverance, tolerance, etc;

- proper work ethics such as regularity, punctuality, honesty, dedication, discipline, etc;

- self-esteem through achievement in productive work and services;

- a deeper concern for the environment and a sense of belonging, responsibility and commitment for the society;

- strive for excellence.

Course Content

The content of work education comprises two parts i.e. 'Essential Activities' for the satisfaction of day-to day needs of the pupils, their families and communities and an Elective Programme of productive work and services, which would result in some remuneration in cash or kind. The component of productive work practice through 'Elective Activities' is most important at this stage and is, therefore, to be assigned a weightage of 70 percent of the school time-table. However, the actual selection of activities/projects/prevocational courses by school would depend upon the availability of natural, physical and human resources in the locality, the socio-economic background of the community and the needs and interests of the pupils.

Essential Activities

List of activities for the secondary School stage is given below :

- Use of bus, railway, air time-table etc.

- Milking of dairy animals and managing allied activities.

- Help in preparation and distribution of mid-day meal/snacks in composite schools.

- Preparation of toys and other play materials for self and primary classes.

- Helping school authorities in organizing exhibitions, picnics, tours and excusions, school functions etc., and then presenting report on that.

- First aid activities like counting of pulse, taking of temperature and bandaging of wounds after cleaning them.

- Helping traffic police in the regulation of traffic.

- Plantation of shady/fuel/ornamental/avenue trees.

- Preparation of family budget and maintenance of daily household accounts.

- Acquaintance with common fertilizers and pesticides and their application with apppropriate equipment.

- To be able to make efforts to know and procure transport facilities from one point to another in cooperation with Panchayat.

- Acquaintance with common pests and plant diseases and use of simple chemical and plant protection equipment.

- Handling farm animals for feeding, washing or general examination.

- Studying the nutrition and health status of people in a village/city/slum/tribal area.

- Helping in community health programmes for enhancing the nutrition, helath and environmental status of the community through door-to-door contact programmes.

- Participation in adult literacy programme.

- Helping in child-care in creches.

- Volunteer work in hospitals and fairs, during natural disasters and accident etc.

Elective Activities

Work practice at this stage is to take the form of projects with sequential activities in respect of vocations in the production or service sectors. Intensive projects/prevocational courses in diverse need and occupational areas, to be pursued over a span of time ranging from a few months to the entire two-years duration of the Secondary stage, are clearly the answer for this requirement. Such projects/prevocational courses are intended to lead to intensive skill formation and proficiency in work which would be conducive to increased productivity and capacity on the part of pupils to engage in work which enables them to earn while they learn. This emphasis on intensive skill formation is meant to provide a prevocational base to the work education programme at this stage and also to serve as ground preparation for the world for those pupils who terminate their studies after Class X. For those who continue their education at the higher Secondary Stage, these prevocational courses will serve as preparation for  vocational couses at the +2 stage. A tentative list of such projects/ prevocational courses is given below.

- Raising of flowers, vegetables, plant and their seedlings in nurseries.

- Repair and maintenance of equipment for plant protection.

- Prefabrication of irrigation channels.

- Development of plants by vegetative propagation-budding, grafting, cutting, layering etc.

- Raising poultry birds (1) for eggs, (2) for table purposes.

- Making bakery and confectionery products.

- Food preservation-making of jam, jelly, tomato ketchup, pickles. Projects relating to non-conventional sources of energy-sun, wind, tides, biogas, etc.

- Bee-keeping, bottling and marketing of honey.

- Silk worm rearing for sale or yarn-making.

- Mushroom cultivation for consumption, preservation or sale. 

- Cookery skills.

- Fish rearing in small ponds.

- Post-harvest technology and safe storage of food grains.

- Use of bacterial fertilizers.

- Preparation of milk products.

- Plant protection against pest and diseaes.

- Soil testing and reclamation measures.

- Preparation of stationery items such as files, file boards, registers, writing pads, stamping ink, etc.

- Tieing and dyeing and screen printing as commercial ventures.

- Garment making.

- Repair and maintenance of domestic electrical gadgets.

- Peeparing electric extension boards for use in home/school or for sale.

- Photography-commerical.

- Plumbing.

- Preparing paper out of waste paper.

- Preparation of decoration pieces of a more sophisticated nature out of plaster of paris.

- Mat and carpet weaving.

- Doll making.

- Hand embroidery.

- Typewriting with adequate proficiency.

- Stenography.

- Running a cooperative store.

- Running a students bank.

- Running a book bank.

- Caning, carpentry and handling the job of a mason.

- Cycle, scooter repairing.

- Computer operation & maintenance (surfing, accessing internet, e-mail)

- Photocopying.

- Screen-printing.

- PCO (fax).

- Maintenance of farm equipments and machines.

- NCC, NSS, Scouting and Guiding.

Out of the list of Elective Activities suggested above, each pupil is to select one or two activities/projects from different areas of human needs such as food, health and hygience, clothing, shelter, recreation and community service. The number of elective courses to be selected would depend upon the total number of periods required for their performance which schould not exceed.120

Syllabus Outlines of Some Activities.

In order to enable the translation of the above activities and projects into concrete action and to ensure proper utilization of the allotted time as also optimum attainment of the intended objectives, some of the Essential and Elective Activities have been specified further. For Essential Activities, the number of periods needed for their performance, the class for which they are suitable and tools and materials required, are indicated. In case of Elective Activities, class wise prevocational courses are presented with details content/ major activities, learning outcomes/specific actvities, teaching/learning methods, tools and materials, time required for performance and linkage with other curricular areas. Specific activities for the remaining activities/projects/prevocational courses can be worked out in similar manner. Syllabus outlines of some activities are given below.

Essential Activities

Activity 1 : Studying the nutrition and health status of people in a village/city slum/tribal area.

Class X

Malnutrition and infection are the major causes of the precarious status of health in the developing world. Malnutrition is not only due to poverty or non availability of food resulting from social and distributive injustice, but also due to ignorance of nutritional facts and undersiable practices. Malnutrition problems can be resolved to a great extent if judicious selection of food is made possible within economic means and the available foods are better utilized. Infectious diseases are caused mainly by the lingering existence of two fundamental problems of environmental sanitation, mainly unsafe water supply and unhygienic disposal of waste, specially human excreta. The application of modern scientific knowledge to environmental sanitation can lead to 80 percent of the diseases being effectively controlled.

Thus, by developing desirable nutrition, health and environmental sanitation practices in the communities, health problems can be considerably resolved. This can be achieved through environment based education for all age groups of population. A door to door contact programme is the most effective way of environment based education. Without any nutrition, health and sanitation intervention, the status of nutrition, health and sanitation in the community can be enhanced through functional edcuation by door to door contanct.

Specific Activities

• Organizing a conference, inviting the sarpanch of the village, community health worker, personnel from the Primary Health Centre, Public Health Engineer and Block Development Officer and discussing about the community health programmes being implemented in the adopted community and exploring the possibility of their participation and cooperation in the contact programme.

• Correlating the nutrition, health and sanitation problems in the adopted community identified from previous survey (Activity 1) with the community health programmes being implemented and preparing a check-list of specific practices desirable in the community such as :- Gives supplementary foods of the child from the age of four months. 

-Gives milk to the child in katori and not in a bottle.

- Feeds the child several times a day.

- Feeds the child even when sick.

- Immunizes the child.

- Washes vegetables before cutting.

- Makes use of surplus cooking water.

- Uses green leafy vegetables regularly.

- Uses raw vegetables/fruits/sprouted grains regularly.

- Keeps the home surroundings clean.

- Uses waste water for growing plants.

- Throws garbage in a pit

- Keeps teeth clean.

- Keeps nails trimmed and clean

- Keeps hair clean and combed.

- Keeps clothes clean.

- Defecates away from pathways, sources of water and houses.

- Washes after defecation outside and not in pond/tank/stream.

• Distributing families among members of the project team for door-to-door contact and preparing a time schedule for door-to-door contact programmes, explaining the importance of desirable practices for better nutrition, health and sanitation and recording the practices present in the family in the checklist of desirable practices.

• Discussing the problems encountered by the team members after every 3 contacts, analyzing why a particular desirable practice is not achieved, finding out possible solution to reinforce the programme.

• Consolidation the records of desirable practices on the first and last contact programme for the entire community and seeing the impact of the programme on the basis of improvement in practice percentage.

• Assessing individual performance of the project team members on the basis of their integrity and honesty and improvement in practice percentage in the families assigned to them.

Activity 3 : First Aid.

First aid is the immediate and temporary care given to the victim of an accident or sudden illness. The main purpose of first aid is to preserve life, assist recovery and prevent aggravation of the condition until the availability of a doctor, or during transport to casualty home or hospital.

Specific Activities

• Preparation and use of First Aid Kit.

• Dressing of wounds and bandaging.

• Management of simple injuries and emergencies :

- bleeding

- shock

- drowning

- burns

- snakebites

- fractures

- poisoning

Activity 4 : Plantation of Shade/Fuel/Ornamental/Avenue trees.

Importance of trees for ecological balance of the environment. Local and exotic trees for various purposes. Factors affecting normal growth of the plants. Specific problems pertaining to certain tree species and their solution. Raising seedlings in the nursery, nursery management. Vegetative propagation of ornamental trees. Planning layout. Planting and after care.

Specific Activities

• Identification of shade/fuel/ornamental/avenue trees.

• Preparation of herbaria of various trees.

• Phenological observations on vegetative growth, emergence of new shoots/leaves, flowering, fruiting, etc.

• Identification of seeds, seed treatment before sowing in the nursery.

• Preparation of nursery beds for sowing the seeds.

• Raising seedlings in the nursery and nursery management.

• Vegetative propagation by cuttings, layerage.

• Layout for planting

• Digging pits for planting.

• Preparation of soil-manure mixture for filling the pits.

• Transfer of seedlings for plantation.

• Planting with the help of planting board or rope.

• Providing tree-guards/fencing for protection (made of iron bars/empty old drums/throny twigs/ bricks/ barbed wire/live fence, etc.)

• After care of the plants; watering, weeding mulching, hoeing, protection against disease, pests, animals, adverse weather conditions, etc.

Activity 5 :

Acquaintance with Common Fertilizers and pesticides and their Application with Appropriate Equipment.

Elements of plant nutrition, Common fertilizers nitrogenous, phosphatic. Concept of biofertilizers, micronutrients, Common insecticides, fungicides, weedicides. Calculation of doses. Plant protection equipment; various types of sprayers and dusters. Use and maintenance of PP equipment. Methods of fertilizers application soil and foliar application.

Specific Activities:

• Identification of various fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides, Weedicides, bio-fertilizers.

• Identification of various parts of sprayers and dusters.

• Calibration of PP equipment.

• Calculation of doses of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. for specific purpose.

• Preparation of working solution of PP chemicals.

• Use of PP equipment.

• Fertilizer application through basal dressing, top dressing and foliar spraying.

• Use of bio-fertilizers for legume crops.

• Band placement of fertilizers in horticultural crops.

• General observations of crops/plants/after application of fertilizers/pesticides and their comparison with the untreated ones.

Activity 6 :

Acquaintance with Common Pests and Diseases of Plants and Use of Simple Chemicals and Plant Protection Equipment.

Significance of pests and diseases in agriculture. Their control measures. General idea about biological and integrated control measures. Common insecticides, fungicides, weedicides. Commonplant protection equipment, their construction details, simple repairs and maintenance. Precautions while using PP chemicals. Common pests of important field crops, vegetable and fruit crops. Common diseases of important field crops, vegetable and fruit crops.

Specific Acitivies

• Collection and preservation of insects, their larvae, pupae, eggs.

• Collection and preservation of diseases affected plant parts.

• Identification and description of pests and diseases of crops.

• Identification of plant protection chemicals.

• Estimation of crops damage due to pests and diseases. 

• Cleaning, maintenance and simple repairs of PP equipment.

• Operation of PP equipment.

• Preparation of working solutions of PP chemicals.

• Observation of plant after application of PP chemicals.

• Comparison between the treated and untreated plants.

• Seed treatment with fungicides.

Activity 7 :

Preparation of Family Budget and Maintenance of Daily Household Accounts.

Specific Activities

• Identifying importance of house hold accounts.

• Learning the procedure of recording transactions.

• Keeping records of expenses, vouchers, receipts, bill, etc.

• Preparing simple receipts and payment account in the register systematically and neatly.

• Comparing past receipts and payments with present receipts and payments. Specific Activities

• Discriminating between necessities, comforts and luxuries of different families.

• Preparing a list of consumble articles of the family.

• Collecting comparative prices for the required consumable articles.

• Allocating the family income on various heads.

• Preparing family budget.

• Making a comparative study of the budget of families from lower class, lower middle and middle class.

Activity 8 :

Use of Bus and Railway Time Table and Other Information Sources.

Specific Activities

• Appreciating the importance of bus, railway and other time-tables.

• Collecting bus time-table from bus stand and railway time-table from railway station.

• Studying various parts of time-tables.

• Learning procedures of consulting bus and railway time-table.

Planning bus and railway journey for different purposes and different destinations and routes.

Activity 9 : 

Helping School Authorities in Oragnizing

(a) picnics, tours, excursions, functions.

(b) exhibitions.

Specific Activities

• Helping school authorities in the organization of picnics, tours, excursions and school functions:

- Planning the programme;

- forming groups for different fucntions such as conveyance, food, games and entertainment, collection of funds and maintenance of accounts;

- making arrangements/preparation of each activity;

- organizing/performing activities on the day of the picnic, tour/excursion, function;

- evaluation of the success of the programme/effectiveness of the activity undertaken.

• Helping school authorities in organizing exhibitions:

- planning the programme;

- collecting/making exhibits and keeping them safely;

- collecting suitable tables, boards, etc. for display;

- cleaning and decorating the exhibition hall or ground;

- displaying the exhibits on proper spots according to plan;

- doing reception duty on the day of the exhibition;

- explaining exhibits to the visitors;

- collecting the exhibits after the exhibition and restoring them to their owners/the school authorities;

- putting back the furniture, etc. in its proper place.

Activity 10 : Participation in Adult-Literacy Programmes.

Specific Activities

• Survey to the neighbourhood and identification of adult illiterates.

• Making door-to-door visits and persuading them to join literacy classes.

• Grouping the illiterates according to their age, occupation and interests.

• Grouping students on the basis of their known capabilities and interests.

• Selecting literacy materials with the guidance and help of the teacher.

• Making spatial and physical arragements for conducting the programme.

• Making adequate preparation for teaching, including the selection of teaching aids.

• Teaching adults in groups.

• Getting together in class and reviewing the progress of work and problems, if any

• Correcting the teaching methods and procedures in the light of experience.

• Evaluting the progress of adult literacy and maintaining records.

Materials, Tools and Equipment Required : Charts, maps, register, almirah, etc.

Activity 11 : Material for Classroom Use.

Specific Activities

• Identification of the concept/topic/lession for which teaching aids are to be prepared.

• Identification of the teaching aids to be prepared-flashcards, chart, model, scrapbook, flannelboard, improvised apparatus, etc.

• Making a plan/working drawing of the teaching aid as also a list of tools and materials required.

• Collecting materials needed for making it.

• Preparing the teaching aid under the guidance of the teacher.

• Using the teaching aid on a smaple of students to find out its effectiveness and defects.

• Correcting the defects.

• Submitting it to the school authorities for use.