dated August 24, 1951: Graduates and excellence

From the Editorials: ``The keynote of the Education Minister, Mr. K. Madhava Menon's Convocation address to the new graduates of Madras University is an earnest appeal `to avoid the shoddy, and to strive only for the best''. He characterises this ability to pick out the truly excellent as ``aristocratic'', using the word in no narrow sense, and as one distinguishing those so able from the vulgar-minded who neglect their own proper self-development. He points out that far too many young men and women graduate without any clear idea of how they are going to use the special knowledge and experience they have acquired. Luckily for us, the picture is not all black. The Minister for Agriculture has disclosed that all successful candidates from Agricultural Colleges in our State from 1946 to 1951 have been absorbed in his Department, including this year 125 graduates out of 141. This proves that university education can be linked with our development plans. But Mr. Menon is justified in thinking that the tragic waste of opportunities implied in the overcrowding in our colleges and in highly-qualified science graduates settling in administrative offices can be prevented by adopting the American system. Under that system, our Universities would have testing bureaux ready and competent to advise parents and students on the selection of subjects for study, the chances of employment open to students, and their choice of future careers. This presupposes a certain basic intelligence and aptitude in the student, and here no Government or University can afford to ignore Mr. Menon's advice to seek the best. Unfortunately, extraneous considerations are sought to be imported into the admission of students in colleges, and this is bound adversely to affect the whole system of education in our State.

``There will be agreement with what the Education Minister says on the need to cultivate social sense in students. The ideal of the good neighbour, so memorably proclaimed by the late President Roosevelt, is as desirable in smaller communities as in the larger international sphere. Mr. Menon paid a striking tribute to our ancient social order which has withstood rude shocks without disintegrating. He regrets that that social order has become petrified and needs the life- giving water of social sense.''

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