________________
VA believes that Gandhiji's concept of 'Basic Education' is very much relevant today. It needs to be adapted to the technology of today including the use of computers. Va believes that it is our responsibility to work towards bringing a transformation in the traditional education system - to move from 'Book centric' education to 'Work centric' education. Following are the three areas, on which VA wants to concentrate in the near future. A) Education : Dr Kalbag has spelled out RDES philosophy. IBT and DBRT are the two programmes he devised as a tool to bring RDES into practice. So far, VA's programme was limited to work based activities. There is continuous need to enrich the programme with new tools and techniques. Simultaneously, VA needs to bring other social science subjects into the definition of development. RDES - DBRT - IBT - Work Centric Education (WCE) Now, VA wishes to begin working on WCE concepts and go beyond IBT (pre -vocational) course. In work centric education, it is expected that all the academic subject like science, geography, languages, history, mathematic are taught through work based activities. Work will be medium of education. There is a need to develop WCE paradigm. A widespread confusion exists about work based education. It is generally looked upon as some combination of pre-vocational programmes, socially useful productive work (SUPW) , science project activities and arts and craft activities. Many oppose WCE believing it would promote child labour. VA plans to take up a lead in propagating the WCE philosophy in the right spirit" Rural Development Through Education System 284
