TOLERANCE PRIMARY AIM OF EDUCATION

TOLERANCE PRIMARY 

AIM OF EDUCATION

President Pranab Mukherjee has said that tolerance and acceptance of divergent views were the primary purpose of education.The President, while inaugurating the bicentenary celebrations of CMS College here, said: “education means building up character, tolerance, acceptance of divergent views and celebration of diversity. Our colleges and universities have to be citadels of intellectual freedom and the ground for creative pursuits.”He said the college, founded by missionaries, had welcomed students not only from various Christian denominations, but also from different religions and ethnic affiliations. The college produced students who questioned the continued presence of the British in India. “Slogans demanding Independence of India reverberated through the campus during the struggle for independence,” he said.

“CMS College has been the source of strong currents of knowledge and critical inquiry that have moulded the scholastic and socio cultural landscape of Kerala, and propelled the State to the forefront of social development,” he said. “Even 1,500 years back at the time of Taxila, India enjoyed leadership in higher learning along with Greece, China and Persia. And these centres, like magnets, had attracted faculty and students from far off lands,” he said.If India has to take its rightful place in the comity of nations, the way ahead is only through robust education system. The demands of higher education can be met only if private sector participates equally with the public sector institutions. The private sector had played a key role in higher education in many countries, the President said and added that top international universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford were the results of private sector efforts.In spite of the number of IITs, IIMs and NITs, none of the institutions in the country could enter the top 200 institutions in the ranking by international ranking agencies till recently, he said. “However, some concerted efforts by our institutions in recent past have shown good results. Indian institutions, not one but two have found their place, for the first time, among the top 200 universities in the world in ranking by a reputed agency. Two other Indian institutions have been ranked among the top 20 small universities in the world by another international agency,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

Prof. John Kurakar