Higher Education ,September 23, 1963
``A well organized education should not be one which prepares students for a
good remuneration alone. It should be one that can help and guide them towards
acquiring clear thinking, a fruitful mind, and an elevated spirit.
The educated person that Ethiopia and countries of our level needs is not one
who had stuffed bits of knowledge into his mind. The needed educated individual
is one who uses the ideas he obtained from his lectures, books, and discussions
to the best advantage of his own country and his own people. It is he who
disseminates new ideas in harmony with the economic and social aspects of his
own community so that fruitful results would be realized. This is the educated
person who can show segments of knowledge he accumulated in his learning,
inventiveness in a new situation.
Ethiopia is a country with her own culture and mores. These, our cultures and
customs, more than being the legacy of our historical past, are characteristics
of our Ethiopianness. We do not want our legacies and traditions to be lost. our
wish and desire is that education develop, enrich, and modify them.
You all know the continuous effort that Ethiopia is exerting for the development
of a profound and high standard education. We need educated and trained persons
for research, for the study and development of our country's resources, for
technology, for medicine, for the law, and the administration for our people
according to their custom. These are the needs that constrain us to provide, at
all levels, education free of charge. And students, ever mindful of this
privilege, should endeavour to recompense their country and nation.
The opportunity for education, afforded to the fortunate in our country, is not
given to them for a fashion or a mode. It is given for a purpose, for a task,
for a high reponsibility for full and exhaustive use, for the benefit of our
country, and the coming generation. We have just explained to you the type of
result, and responsibility that we expect from you students. It is on you, the
members of the faculty that we must rely for this result. We realize the heavy
responsibility we have entrusted to you. We hope that you too, while believing
and accepting your responsibilities as your sacred duties, will, produce for
Ethiopia persons who take pride in you and their education and are ready for the
call of service.
It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise,
farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country
and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the
example.
On their part also, they will have to learn not only formal education but also
self discipline that should be worthy to be inherited. May the Almighty God be
with you in the fulfillment of your duties. ``