Principles of Extension Education

• Principles are generalised guidelines which form the basis for decision & action in a consistent way.
• The two important principles of extension education are Participation & Leadership.

1) Principle of needs and interests

• Needs & Interest of the people are the starting point of extension work.
• Extension work shall be successful only when it is based on the needs & interest of the people.

2) Grass-roots principle

• Extension programme should start with local groups, local situations & local problems. It must fit to the local conditions. Extension work should start with where people are & what they have. Change should start from the existing situation.
• Ex. The establishment of Panchayat Raj Bodies at various levels fulfils this principle.

3) Principle of cultural differences

• Culture simply means social heritage. Differences exist between groups of farmers as well as between extension agents regarding their habits, customs, values, attitudes & way of life.
• Extension work must be carried out in harmony with the cultural pattern of the people.

4) Principle of cooperation and participation

• Most people of the village community should willingly cooperate & participate in identifying the problems, planning of projects for solving the problems & implementing the projects in getting the desired results.
• People must share in developing & implementing the programme & feel that it is their own programme.
• Ex. When villagers assist the extension worker at different levels in implementing a new programme.

5) Principle of learning by doing

• Learning remains far from perfect, unless people get involved in actually doing the work.
• Learning by doing is most effective in changing people’s behaviour. This develops confidence as it involves maximum number of sensory organs.
• People should learn what to do, why to do, how to do and with what result.
• Learning by doing is coined by John Dewey.

6) Principle of adaptability

• The extension work & teaching methods must be flexible & adapted to suit the local conditions.
• This is necessary because the people, their situation, their resources & constraints vary from place to place & time to time.

7) Principle of leadership

• Local leaders are the custodians of local thought & action. The involvement of local leader & legitimization by them are essential for the success of a programme. The leader may be trained & developed to act as carriers of change in the village.
• “Never do anything that you get someone to do for you” related to this principle.
• Leadership development in extension is a mean.
• Most useful leader in extension is voluntary leader.
• Ex. The extension of scientific knowledge to villagers by specialists of the same area.

8) Whole family principle

• Not only the farmers, the farm youth and farm women are also involved in extension programme.

9) Principle of satisfaction

• The end product of extension work should produce satisfying results for the people.
• Satisfaction results reinforce learning and motivate people to seek further improvement.

10) Principle of indigenous knowledge

• Instead of ignoring the indigenous knowledge systems as out-dated, the extension agent should try to understand them & their ramifications in the life of the people, before proceeding to recommended something new to them.

11) Principle of evaluation

• Evaluation prevents stagnation.
• There should be a build-in method of finding out extent to which the results obtained are in agreement with the objectives fixed earlier.
• This will show gaps and steps to be taken for further improvement.

Principles of Extension Education

• Principles are generalised guidelines which form the basis for decision & action in a consistent way.
• The two important principles of extension education are Participation & Leadership.

1) Principle of needs and interests

• Needs & Interest of the people are the starting point of extension work.
• Extension work shall be successful only when it is based on the needs & interest of the people.

2) Grass-roots principle

• Extension programme should start with local groups, local situations & local problems. It must fit to the local conditions. Extension work should start with where people are & what they have. Change should start from the existing situation.
• Ex. The establishment of …

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