Those who do not train their hands, who go through the ordinary rut of education, lack Music in their life"
- Mahatma Gandhi
Work education is a distinct curricular area for providing children with opportunities for participation of social and economic activities inside and outside the classroom (school), which would enable them to understand scientific principles and procedures involved in different types 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 knowledge, understanding, practical skills and values through need based life activities. Work education 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.
C.B.S.E. has introduced Work Experience as an integral part of school curriculum with a view to provide corrective to the pre-dominantly bookish education and to bring students closer to practicality.
At the various school stages, exposure to work experience should come through activities which fall under:
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;
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.
The Core Area covers the following nine aspects of human needs:
i. Nutrition Education, ii. Health Education, iii. Population Education, iv. Culture and Recreation, v. Value Development, vi. Media and Mass Communication, vii. Information Technology, viii. Consumer Education, ix. Environment
he Elective Area covers the following aspects of human needs:
- Meal Planning and Preparation
- Food Processing and Catering Management
- Home Management and Interior decoration
- Child Care and Creche Management
- Textile Designing(Fabric Painting, Block Printing, Scrap Book, Tie and dye, Screen printing, Batik)
- Elements of Dress Designing (Cutting, Tailoring, Knitting and Embroidery)
- Commercial Art (Music, Singing, Dance, Band, Acting, , Theatre, Drawing, Yoga, Life Skills, Photography)
- Craft Work(Paper Work, Paper Mache, Clay Modelling, Doll Making, Soft Toys, Macrame Work)
Preparation of Specific items & their value addition(Gift wrapping, Best out of waste, Gift wrapping, Preparation of soaps, Preparation of Detergent powder and Shampoo, Candle Making, Terracota (Value Addition), Making a lighting fixure (lamp), Masala preparation)
- Computer Applications
- Typewriting
- Book Keeping
Office Routine and Practices (General awareness about the office and business environment, Handling of Mail, Office Equipment and tools, Office services)
- Repair & maintenance of Electrical Gadgets
- Repair & maintenance of Simple Electronic Devices
- Gardening and Vermi-composting
Therefore, all students are urged to learn as per aptitude and vacancy as part of work experience scheme, towards the realisation of such goals/social qualities like dignity of labour, self reliance, discovery of personal interests and aptitudes, accountability, consideration for others, co-operation and team work.