பக்கம்:புதிய கல்வி முறை-10-2-3.pdf/58

38 and also by several conferences of student's organizatoins. The Central Advisory Board of Education has also: unanimously supported the proposal expressed the view that it should be implemented on a priority basis and that, at any rate, the programme should be completed in all parts of the country by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Plan. The Resolution of the Government of India on the National Policy of Education also supports the uniform adoption of this pattern. The pattern has since been introdueed in the States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Steps have been initiated to introduce the pattern in the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal. Several other States have set up. committees to examine the issue and it is hoped that they will also follow suit in the near future Basic Academic Considerations While due weight must be attached to this series weighty recommendations of important Commissions and Committees and the steps already taken to implement them, it is also necessary to examine these proposals on academic grounds and to satisfy ourselves that they are in the best interests of the country. This is what I shall now proceed to do. The first point to be decided, on academic grounds, is the stage or age at which a student should be deemed to be fit to enter the university system. In all the advanced countries of the world, a student entering the universities is expected to be 18 years of age or more. It is only then that. he can be adequately prepared for entering upon a course of higher education and also be mature enough to study on his own and to profit by the methods of teaching which are: