Bulletin Supplement Aug 1969

of reasons, inequalities have increased. The growth of population in the past twenty years and the prospects of growth in the next thirty have profound influence on all aspects of life, specially on education. 3. There are marked differences in levels of development in education as between different countries in Asia, but these are less important than the more general problems of improvement in education and their correlation with economic and social change. Frequently, high numerical levels obscure low standards. Higher education continues to be a source of privilege. In every country, levels of education, levels of economic development, and the elements of social change which are put through or delayed, intersect at many points, and should be seen as one composite reality. 4. If we consider conditions in Asia, after two decades of evolution, we see that, despite difficulties, most countries have made significant progress towards national consolidation and enjoy advantages which were not available before. At the same time, the inadequacy of the earlier forms of nationalism as a basis for economic and social reconstruction, and the need to go beyond national frontiers in our thinking and to enlarge the world of experience and understanding on which we are able to draw, have become increasingly apparent. 5. On the educational aspects of development, two notable gains of the last two decades are the common commitment, at least in principle, to provide education fo r all, and the beginnings of co-operation between universities and institutions of higher education in Asia. 6. Issues of policy relating to higher education may be said to fall into three groups: (a) the purpose, content and scale of education, (b) educational relations and administration, and (c) social pre-conditions. Under (a ), arising from the scale of education, attention is invited to, the findings of the study of the world crisis in education undertaken at the International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris. On the subject of purpose and content, three complementary goals, t o which universities and institutions of higher education might relate their specific function (the training of the young at an important stage in their lives and the preparation of the greater part of the elite leadership of the future) are suggested. These are: (i) to produce 'the complete citizen' as the Greeks understood this notion; ( i i ) to turn out technical, scientific and professionally trained personnel; and ( i i i ) to train young people, no t so much as specialists, but as activists of change, who are equipped and motivated to lead. The courses to be taught and the balance between the humanities and the sciences follow the goals to be achieved. In this connection, attention is drawn to Whitehead's notion of 'dominant emphasis' in relation to the literary curriculum, the scientific curriculum, and the technical curriculum. Five issues of policy are proposed under the head, 'educational relations and administration', and five more under the head, 'social pre-conditions.' 7. Finally, after referring to one recent attempt, based on a comparative view of history, to define the critical problems in modernization, and another to specify the 'modernization ideals' under- lying planning and economic development in South and South-east Asia, attention is focussed on the implications of the relationship in many Asian countries between the modern, organised sector and the unorganised, household sector. It is pointed out that this relationship has at present the effect of enlarging economic and social inequalities within society. Universities and institutions of higher education now mainl y serve the organised, modem sector of the economy and have not yet reached out or applied themselves to the problems of the unorganised sector. Thi s limits the quality and range of their contribution to society and to the pace and content of modernization. 8. For higher education in Asian countries to serve as the agent of change such as will encompass the people as a whole and to produce the outlook which the new society of tomorrow in our best conceptions calls for, fresh thought has to be given to the nature of the economic system, the economic institutions, and the relations in the future between the organised and the unorganised sectors. The construction role of education, specially of higher education, in Asian countries, in modernization and in economic and social transformation is intimately related to the building up of unified economies and integrated societies. The y are in fact two sides of the same basic task. 9. There is considerable scope for co-operation between countries i n Asia through their universities and institutions of higher education. Specific proposals could be evolved, for instance, for common forums for exchange of experience, for co-operative research programmes, for exchange of teachers, research workers, students and university administrators, for expansion of library resources, and for the translation of important texts and documents. — 7 —