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went more by the apparent form rather than the deep thinking behind The programme gave the impression to the society at large as being divorced from the direction of Science and Technology and therefore, retrograde. This was mainly because of the choice of activities to be given in schools. The second effect was that the ruling elite did not opt for it and created the impression that Basic Education was for the Masses and the normal'academic' education was for the Classes. The third mistake was that we stressed the ideology and not the performance of the system. If we had data to show that Basic Education could produce better results than the normal education for the common man, we could have gradually got acceptance for the system. • Lastly, we do not monitor performance indicators to judge the results of any educational experiment we do. We should now take precautions not to repeat these mistakes if we give these ideas a second chance. Guidelines for the new system: I Lower Primary school will use the education methods advocated by such stalwarts as Gijubhai Badheka, Tarabai Modak, Anutai Wagh in India and Madame Montessori in Europe. These methods are now universally accepted for children's education. (Children will learn while playing- Gandhiji) 2 The middle and upper Primary will have more activity (use of body organs to develop intelligence-Gandhi) to impart work orientation. The MHRD already has the 'work experience' syllabus under the MLL program. This should be taken up for implementation. 3 The Lower Secondary School should implement the 'Prevocational Scheme' earlier announced by MHRD (1995) with some changes to reduce costs and bring in community • Rural Development Through Education System 107
