________________
VA campus at Pabal is an educational laboratory where VA plans to undertake new initiatives to develop programmes to teach geography, language, culture, arts, history etc. through work based activities. The rural areas in the country are getting urbanized. With it's rapid pace, it is estimated that by 2050, almost 50% of country's population will live in cities. To propagate WCE philosophy, we need to demonstrate its utility in urban areas as well. Therefore, VA wishes to work on developing work based programme keeping in mind the changing society.. Web based learning, video conferencing are becoming a reality even in the villages. VA plans to take up new initiatives to provide online education to reach out to students in a much larger number. B) Technology Development: The core value of VA is 'Quest for Knowledge'. It is necessary to keep VA programmes dynamic and up-to-date. VA will continuously adapt new technologies and develop business models for dissemination through its students. These would be the businesses based on new technologies and not traditional occupations. In RDES, Dr Kalbag put forward a concept of building linkages with higher technical institutes, schools and communities. In last six years, we have collaborated with institutions like MIT, IIT, College of Engineering, Pune, KVK etc. VA plans to work towards establishing such linkages even at school level. Government and policy makers are increasingly looking forwards to education as a tool to meet the demand of skill manpower, generated by the industries. Contrary to that VA is propagating 'work as a medium of education' and mainly to develop intellectual capability of child. Many privet schools and educated parents realized importance of work in overall development of child. They give work exposure to their children through holiday camps and extracurricular activities. Rural Development Through Education System 285
