Needed Firm Action

And Now, a Radio University! Eunice de Souza V K R V RAO'S proposal to set up an Air University and his ideas for celebrating International Education Year in 1970 indicate that India is in for another jamboree of the kind inflicted on the country during the Gandhi Centenary Year. There is to be a rash of seminars on subjects such as Vinoba Bhave's "significant contribution to the development of Indian languages" and country-wide celebrations of the birth centenary of Maria Montessori, None of this is anywhere near the crux of the matter: is the content of our education relevant to the needs of a developing society and is our system adjusted to serving them? The Education Minister's Radio University scheme has been inspired by Britain's success in setting up a similar scheme but the fact that he says the proposal will be discussed in yet another seminar in Bombay later this year shows that little thought has gone into what this kind of university requires and whether it is really a sensible way of meeting the needs of higher education in India. :. The aim of Britain's Open University, as it has been called, is to offer courses at both graduate and post-graduate levels, without requiring any formal entrance qualifications, to people who are, for reasons that have nothing to do with their intellectual abilities, denied access to such courses through other channels. The great majority of the students