WORK
AND EDUCATION
Work,
understood simply, is an activity directed toward
making or
doing something. It also means making
one’s work
or capabilities, or both, available for
someone
else’s purposes for monetary or other forms
of return.
A number of these activities are related to
producing
food, articles of daily use, looking after the
physical
and mental well-being of people, and other
activities
related to the administration and organisation
of
society. In any society, in addition to these, two basic
dimensions
(producing goods and establishing smooth
functioning),
various other activities also contribute to
human
well-being, and in that sense are considered
forms of
work.
Understood
in this sense, work implies a
commitment
to other members of the society and/or
community
as one is contributing one’s work and
capabilities
for fulfilling their needs. Second, it implies
that one’s
contribution made through work will be
submitted
to public standards of performance and
hence will
be valued and judged by others. Third, work
implies
contributing to the functioning of social life as
it either
produces something that makes life possible
or helps
in the functioning of society in general. Finally,
work
enriches human life as it opens up new dimensions
However,
we must not forget that children are
often
socialised into discriminatory practices and
values and
that adults socialise children within the
dominant
socio-cultural paradigm. It is important
to
recognise that both adults and children are
socialised
in the same way. We also have to remember
that work
as forced labour is perhaps the most
demeaning
of all coercions. There have to be adequate
measures
in place to ensure that introduction of work
as an
integral part of the curriculum should never
lead to a
situation where work is thrust on unwilling
children,
or that the ‘work’ itself is a hindrance to the
child’s
education and normal growth and
development.
Routine and repetitive activity carried
on for the
sake of production or work that is
associated
with the division of labour based on caste
and gender
should be strictly avoided. Also, a teacher
making
children work without him/herself
participating
in the work is unlikely to achieve the
objectives
of integrating work with the curriculum.
The
inclusion of work within the school must also
never be
used as the justification for the exploitation
of
children.
Work is
also an arena for learning for children,
whether in
the home, the school, the society or the
workplace.
Children begin to absorb the concept of
work as
early as the age of two years. Children imitate
their
elders and like pretending to do work. For
example,
it is not unusual to see very young children
pretending
to ‘sweep’ the floor, or ‘hold meetings’, or
‘build
houses’, or ‘cook’. Work as an educational tool
is used by
many pedagogies. For example, the
Montessori
system integrates work concepts and skills
from the
very beginning. Cutting vegetables, cleaning
the
classroom, gardening and washing clothes are all a
part of
the learning cycle. Beneficial work that is in
keeping
with the child’s age and ability, and which
contributes
to the child’s normal growth and
development,
when introduced into children’s lives can
serve to
enable children to learn values, basic scientific
concepts,
skills and creative expression. Children gain
an
identity through work, and feel useful and productive
as work
adds meaning and brings with it membership
to society
and enables children to construct knowledge.
Through
work one learns to find one’s place in
society.
It is an educational activity with an inherent
potential
for inclusion. Therefore, an experience of
involvement
in productive work in an educational setting
should
make one appreciate the worth of social life
and what
is valued and appreciated in society. Since
work
defines some achievable targets and creates a
web of
interdependence, it entails making efforts in a
disciplined
manner, thus creating possibilities for greater
self-control,
focusing mental energies and keeping
emotions
under check. The value of work, particularly
skills
that involve good finish, are undervalued as a
means of
achieving excellence and learning
self-discipline.
The discipline exercised by the material
(say, clay
or wood) is more effective and qualitatively
different
from the discipline exercised by one human
being over
another. Work involves interaction with
materials
or other people (mostly both), thus creating
a deeper
comprehension and increased practical
knowledge
of natural substances and social
relationships.
All this is in addition to the usual physical
skills
involved in learning a trade that may be turned
into a
means of earning a livelihood. The aspects of
work
mentioned here draw attention to the
meaning-making
and knowledge-construction
dimension
of work. This is the pedagogic function
that work
can play in the curriculum.
Benefits
of this nature can be drawn from work
only if it
becomes an integral part of the school
curriculum.
Pursued in an academic setting, work carries
the
remarkable potential of generating new forms of
creativity
and understanding while opening up the
possibility
of transforming the nature of work itself.
This has
become even more essential as in a majority
of
families in India contributing to household work
and family
trade is a way of living, but this pattern is
changing
due to the pressure of school on children’s
time and
the rampant competition in memorisation
of
information. Academic activity tends to be
imprisoned
within disciplinary boundaries. When
academic
learning and work are simultaneously
collocated,
there is a chance of greater creativity in
academic
pursuits as also in the methods and tools of
doing
work. A synergetic enhancement can take over.
That is
how efficient hand pumps were designed.
High-flying
polythene balloons used to burst while
going
through the extremely cold stratosphere untill a
scientifically
minded worker suggested that putting a
little
carbon powder in the fabric would help to keep
it warm by
absorbing sunlight. Indeed, all great
inventors
were tinkerers who knew a little science.
Edison,
Ford and Faraday belonged to this category,
so also
those who invented the first pair of spectacles
or the telescope.
There is little doubt that much of the
traditional
knowledge of our potters, craftsmen,
weavers,
farmers and medical men has come through
such
pursuits – where these individuals were
simultaneously
engaged in physical work and academic
thinking. We
need to infuse such a culture of
innovation,
curiosity and practical experience in our
education
system.
However,
schools at present are not geared for
work as a
part of the curriculum in terms of
infrastructure
or learning material. Work is necessarily
an
interdisciplinary activity. Therefore, integrating work
into the
school curriculum would require a substantial
amount of
pedagogical understanding of how it would
be
integrated with learning and the mechanisms for
assessment
and evaluation.
Institutionalising
work in the school curriculum
will
require creative and bold thinking that breaks out
of its
stereotyped location in periods of Socially Useful
and
Productive Work (SUPW), something about which
all
children and teachers are justifiably sceptical. We need
to examine
how the rich work knowledge base and
skills of
marginalised children can be turned into a
source of
their own dignity as well as a source of
learning
for other children. This is especially important
in the
context of the growing alienation of the
middle-upper-class
children from their cultural roots
and the
central role played by the education system in
aggravating
and accelerating this process. There is
immense
potential for utilising the knowledge base of
the vast
productive sections of society as a powerful
means for
transforming the education system. Work
seen as a
form of ‘valid’ knowledge allows one to
re-examine
the invisibility of the contributions of
women and
non-dominant groups to what is regarded
as
valuable in society. Productive work would need to
find a
place at the centre of the curriculum in order to
act as a
powerful corrective to the ‘bookish’,
information-oriented
and generally unchallenging
character
of school education and, in turn, help relate
the latter
to the life needs of the child. Pedagogical
experience
in using work would become an effective
and
critical developmental tool at different stages of
childhood
and adolescence. Thus, ‘work-centred
education’
is different from vocational education.
The school
curriculum from the pre-primary to
the senior
secondary stages should be reconstructed
for
realising the pedagogic potential of work as a
pedagogic
medium in knowledge acquisition,
developing
values and multiple-skill formation. As the
child matures,
there is a need for the curriculum to
recognise
the child’s need to be prepared for the world
of work,
and a work-centred pedagogy can be
pursued
with increasing complexity while always being
enriched
with the required flexibility and contextuality.
A set of
work-related generic competencies (basic,
interpersonal
and systemic) could be pursued at all
stages of
education. This includes critical thinking,
transfer
of learning, creativity, communication skills,
aesthetics,
work motivation, work ethic of collaborative
functioning,
and entrepreneurship-cum-social
accountability.
For this evaluation, parameters would
also need
to be redesigned. Without an effective and
universal
programme of work-centred education, it is
unlikely
that UEE (and later Universal Secondary
Education too) would ever
succeed.
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