The Case for Craft-based education

Since for most people, their education is linked directly to their livelihood it becomes imperative for us to explore the value of a craft-based vocational education within the economic paradigm.

• Through his article 'The skilled and the schooled' Amit Basole draws attention to the possibility of the existance of ways of seeing and doing beyond those we have learnt through the formalised, modern education and to the need for humility in the face of it. He uses some interesting Indian and global works (both academic and practice based) to illustrate these points.
• Boaventura De sousa Santos highlights the need for society to acknowledge the epistomologies of people and places that have been unfairly subjected to the dominance of western thought and capitalism. He makes the bold statement that there can never be social justice without cognitive justice. 
• Gandhi was of the opinion that large scale industries make people lazy and help concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. Alternatively, he believed that a self-sufficient village economy would allow for increased socially relevant productivity from every individual especially in a country like India. It would allow for people to participate in life in creative and generative ways.

Case study

The Sittlingi Model 

While there are no formal reports to suggest that the model is in fact working, I am still curious to look into models where sections are not fragmented and how in responding to one segment, one realises the need for action in another. This allows for the nurturing of people's skills and knowledges in ways that are not isolating and hegemonic. (This seems to be a form of action for it's own sake where the observation of something leads to a natural, choiceless and complete response.) 

References 

• https://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/india-struggle-knowledge
• http://www.theweekendleader.com/Heroism/776/an-uphill-task.html
• https://www.edexlive.com/beinspired/2018/aug/20/this-doctor-couple-has-been-healing-the-tribal-folk-of-sittilingi-in-tn-for-over-2-decades-3697.html
• http://www.tribalhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/THIannualreport_1011.pdf
• http://www.thealternative.in/society/progress-executing-simple-things-well/
• http://www.thulir.org/wp/#attempts