SMARIKA workeducation | Page 17

i. Core Area – under which students learn to look after their own needs and those of their neighborhood and community including the school through compulsory activities involving manual work and social service; and ii. Elective Area – under which students through repeated practice in an activity of their choice acquire enough skills in productive work and services. This will also be in the nature of pre-vocational experience in some cases. Criteria for Selection of Activities In the pages that follow, number of illustrative activities both under the Core and Elective Areas are given for the guidance of schools. The list, obviously, cannot be exhaustive. The schools have the freedom to plan their own activities according to their own needs. While planning an activity the schools should ensure that it satisfies the following criteria: 1. The activity must be in accordance with the basic concept of Work Education involving purposive, meaningful and manual work; 2. It should help the students in developing desirable work ethics and social values; 3. It should be suited to the level of maturity of students; 4. It should generate enough interest among the students. One can take a horse to water but cannot make it drink. So students have not to be forced to undertake an activity with the result that their unwillingness becomes a stumbling block; 5. It should be easy to be organized by the, staff without much outside help and should have most of the schools resources; and 6. It should have most of the following dimensions: i. Identification of a problem; ii. Observation of work situation; iii. Participation in a work situation or involvement in manual work; iv. Cultivation of good habits and attitudes; v. Production of goods/services. 9