FIRST GRADUATION EXERCISES OF HAILE SELASSIE I UNIVERSITY
AIRMEN CONTRIBUTE TO COUNTRY'S SELF-DEFENCE
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FIRST GRADUATION EXERCISES OF HAILE SELASSIE I UNIVERSITY
.....Academic freedom, unless it conforms to the common good of the society in which it is expected to be exercised, is meaningless.....
In as much as your country has provided you with this special opportunity, you are duty-bound, upon your graduation, to devote all your knowledge to the betterment of your motherland. What is expected of you is not academic achievement alone. In fact, as it is at the expense of the government that you have been educated, what is expected from you is commensurate with the extent of your knowledge. Education is not an end in itself, it is an aid to assist you to distinguish between good and evil, between the harmful and the useful. Academic attainment, untested by practical experience, does not put one in any better position than that of the uneducated. Higher education entails comparatively higher responsibility or obligation.
The purpose of university training is to produce people capable of achieving the progress and advancement of the nation. People of such calibre are expected to possess deep insight, high academic discipline and intellectual zeal to crave and search for truth, to know not only the causes, also know effective remedies for any ills that affect the society. Unless one is guided by such noble objectives---to know, not only the maladies and how to expound them in vain words, also know to present effective solutions and accomplish them---the possession of degrees alone does not classify anyone as fully educated. This is particularly so at this period, crowded as it is with continuous change and improvement. Moreover, since InI educational system is essentially based upon the experience of other countries, the impact of modernization could create contradictions in InI long-standing African traditions. InI can only lay a sure and stable foundation towards rapid progress for Africa when InI forsee the consequences of every step in its true aspect, and try to apply effective and appropriate methods to the problems of each country.
CO-ORDINATION NECESSARY
InI have never failed to observe this approach in all stages of achievement in the past. The very valid proof of this is that, although it is more than a decade since institutions of higher learning have been established in Ithiopia, there has always been sound co-operation between the administrative bodies and the students. The basis of this co-operation has been a collective effort for the common goal, the interest of the country always paramount. In the future also, it is InI wish and determination that all higher studies shall be co-ordinated and guided by this University. Ithiopia is endeavouring, like many other countries, to achieve a high stage of technological progress. In this period of concentrated effort, she cannot afford to be handicapped by trivial problems based on selfish motives.....
The world today has become oriented to science, which has developed and progressed to a remarkable extent. Apart from the will of the Almighty, in this 20th Century peace is determined by the will of the technologically advanced nations which dominate the sentiments of mankind by this privileged position. Intent on freeing themselves from such fear and insecurity, developing countries are using the level of progress of these advanced nations as the yard-stick of their own progress. Developing nations, however, must first attain the basic standard of civilization by stamping out illiteracy through mass education. To be able to provide mass education, co-operation, peaceful co-existence and dedication to the common good are needed; because to arrive at higher scientific achievement, one has to discipline one's mental attitude and work with the aim of being the recipient of true knowledge.
So far, the continuous co-operation of InI people and the small cadre of elite InI have produced have enabled InI to devise successful short-cuts in guiding InI country towards the goal of progress. One such method was, side by side with educational expansion, to launch simultaneously more than one programme of development, by acquiring the services of skilled foreign experts and establishing industrial and other development schemes, without waiting until InI had InI own qualified experts. This University, which today is granting you your degrees and diplomas, is in itself the fruit of such combined effort which InI have made in the past.
THE NEED FOR HOME TRAINING
You also know that to be able to have InI own qualified people even before establishing local institutions of higher learning, InI have been sending students abroad for advanced studies, and that there are many who have come back, and are rendering disinterested service to their country. One of the many fundamental purposes for which InI have established this University is to have a greater number of qualified people who will augment the efforts of those already in service and of those who will come in the future, and, thus, to have a larger corps of trained people not completely divorced from InI traditional heritage. Although a few learned people of InI own are returning from foreign lands, InI have foreseen and are convinced that InI country's pace of progress can only be accelerated when there is a high influx of educated Ithiopians at one and the same time.
Economically also, the expenditure needed to help a single student through higher studies abroad is quite sufficient to train a number of students locally. The reason why higher studies on a larger scale were impossible in the past was mainly this: foreign training was very expensive. InI know that it is clear to everyone that the establishment of InI own University will give us great and valuable opportunities for expanding higher education in Ithiopia. In addition to this, it has a significant economic contribution, in that it helps InI to save foreign exchange which InI need for investment in other fields by avoiding the transfer of money abroad to finance InI students studying in foreign lands. You most probably know that there are many great men produced in their own home institutions of higher learning.
In as much as higher education needs much money, the expansion of higher learning is one of the major problems facing developing and economically poor countries. Hence it can be said that their pace of development is highly determined by this single factor. In the case of Ithiopia---the only bearer of the torch of freedom for the rest of Africa in the past---to prove that she is not behind in the pursuit of modern education also, she is obliged to give opportunity of access to education not only to a few and to as many as possible. To this end, InI are also quite aware that one university is not enough and many universities must be established in the future.
THE WEALTH OF INI HERITAGE
The establishment of InI own University is an effective aid in combining modern education with InI noble traditions. Accordingly, it is InI earnest desire that this University shall jealously guard the wealth of InI heritage and pass it on to the succeeding generation with all its richness and glory as reflected in modern education.
InI say this with the overstanding that any foreign training not assessed in the light of one's long-standing traditions, is detrimental to the well-being of the individual and the country, and in no way useful. InI are confident, therefore, that this University will produce useful citizens by inculcating these views in the minds of its students.
University training entails deep research and intensive studies. Any research should be related to the requirements and conditions of InI country. InI are very optimistic that there are many historically valuable things to be discovered. The students of this University are particularly lucky to be of school age at this particular time, and it is InI hope that you will avail yourselves of this exceptional opportunity and contribute to the knowledge of your country in particular and that of mankind in general, by revealing the hidden, great, historic lore. InI University, therefore, has also a special contribution to make in this field.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
One of the fundamental principles which the establishment of a university brings forth is the idea of academic freedom. Academic freedom, when used for the sole purpose of acquiring true knowledge is undoubtedly the very foundation of the pillars of education; and it is universally recognized that it has been jealously guarded by all institutions of higher learning. An honest and persistent quest for truth is essential to the attainment of higher learning. In the past, both in InI country and in the rest of the world, it has always been vital to lay down such prerequisites for intellectual achievements in order to produce philosophers, scientists, writers and men of academic prominence in other fields. These prerequisites have also been the source of law and order.
InI have also clearly guarded this particular right of academic freedom by clearly stating it in all the Charters issued in the establishment of InI various colleges. What InI want you to overstand very clearly is that academic freedom, when used for any other aim than that for which it is designed, will defeat its own purpose and be harmful rather than useful.
Academic freedom, unless it conforms to the common good of the society in which it is expected to be exercised, is meaningless.
Academic freedom affords a base for higher studies. And the aim of higher studies is to serve the society which is waiting for the leadership of the educated elite. Academic freedom that does not reflect this aim has lost its very foundation for it is no more than an instrument for the protection of that particular right, dedicated to the true quest for knowledge that is useful for the society. Academic freedom, on application, should be tested always against the true end of satisfying the interest of the society. As a proof, when academic freedom as has been applied in one country is copied and fully applied in another, there would be a divergence, because the purposes and aims which it is expected to fulfill can never be identical, as the interests of the people of no two countries completely coincide. Apart from this, the interests of each country also vary with time and circumstance.
An additional reason why academic freedom is held in high esteem and respect is that it makes possible for human beings to improve their ideas and improve their standard of living. For, without academic freedom, human life would remain hopelessly stagnant. However, to use this freedom---which is given for such noble purpose---to divide a people struggling to improve its life and thus make vain all its effort cannot possibly be considered as a valid exercise of academic freedom. In some other countries, too, this is the precise manner in which academic freedom is practised. Such attitude is in fact to undermine the wide application of academic freedom itself.
PARENTAL AGREEMENT ON EDUCATION
One of the important contributions InI are dedicated to bequeath to InI beloved people is education. When InI first launched InI programme of educational expansion, it was necessary to struggle against the interest of parents in sending their children to school. Now the people, overstanding the benefits of the programme which InI have been intent to prosecute for their own betterment, are not only co-operating in sending their children to school upon their own initiative, and many have expressed their desire to share in the great burden of educational expenditure which had fallen solely on the government treasury until today, some by cash contribution and some by building schools. This has very appropriately proven to InI that the Ithiopian people, as in time of crisis, are still behind InI and co-operating even in all InI administrative efforts. This has given InI encouragement and further determination to dedicate InI for the people to the extent that InI feel it is for their lasting welfare. Hence InI have decided to further expand education.
With the help of a limited number of educated people InI have been able to reach the present point of progress. Encouraged by the continued service of this devoted cadre who have served InI faithfully, InI shall embark upon an extended educational programme.
Within a single generation, InI have seen parents who had to be cajoled to send their children to school become so convinced of the value of education that today, those who have the means are assisting InI in bearing the financial burden of education, and many of those who are unable to do likewise continue to stop InI on InI way to request that their children be given places in the school-house. This is highly gratifying and is a source of encouragement for InI to extend InI efforts in education. InI shall endeavour to work for the betterment of InI people by applying funds from InI private purse, utilising simultaneously whatever assistance Ithiopia can receive from friendly governments.
JULY 12, 1962
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AIRMEN CONTRIBUTE TO COUNTRY'S SELF-DEFENCE
.....InI feel happy because InI know that the knowledge you have acquired will be put to the advantage of the country's progress and that your service will greatly strengthen the country's ability for self-defence, and so help it in attaining the stage of progress. InI also feel that the service you will render will bring InI efforts to fruition.
Having personally witnessed the knowledge and flying ability you have acquired in the course of your studies, InI can say that you have reached a stage worthy of praise. However, the knowledge you have so far acquired can only serve you as a basis for further endeavours and you will be considered as experts and be of real service to your country only when you faithfully maintain the good name earned by your outfit and strive to bring a good reputation to your country and people.
As you may judge for yourselves, the airplanes that will be here in the future are very much different from those that have been used so far, and will therefore require greater imagination and ability to handle them. Those people who will be entrusted with their use will bear heavy responsibilities and will, therefore, be recruited very carefully. InI feel that you also realize the need for attaching special importance to this aspect. However, and as much as you have been given sound education and a good start, you can fulfill your obligations only when you strive for higher and better endeavours. This must be your aim and goal in life.
Earlier InI made reference to the good name you have earned. Your reputation is not only known to InI and also to all Africa. To name a few, carrier planes have been used to transport the Ithiopian contingent to the Congo, and since a year jet planes have also been made available for UN service in that Republic. InI planes have also been used at the time when InI neighboring and brotherly people of Somalia were affected by flood. All these have helped in making Ithiopia better known in Africa. It can also be said that African countries sent their youth for training here with you because they were aware of the good name you have earned in the past.
InI shall always strive to render you better facilities for education and also better quality equipment. InI thanks are due to all those whose help and support have been indispensable for crowning your efforts with success.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1962
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Since the problem now faced not only by Ithiopia and by the entire world as well as a result of the shortage of teachers looms large, InI feel especial satisfaction in opening teachers' training schools. The setting up of training schools for teachers is one of the things that enable a country to stand on its own feet.
An increase in the number of teachers' training schools as well as the attainment of a stage of self-sufficiency as regards teachers is a task which InI constantly endeavour to achieve and one in which InI have pinned InI hope with respect to InI country's march to improvement and progress.
It is the duty of teachers to direct the thought and outlook as well as mould the character of their students. For this reason, the responsibility of teachers in training student-teachers aimed at the future progress and development of InI country and the proper upbringing of students could hardly be underestimated.
In the age in which InI are living especially when different philosophies of life are competing against one another, the responsibility of teachers has been found to be even more exacting.
Your guide should therefore be the apostolic saying: study and examine all and choose and follow the good. Our forefathers have succeeded in passing down a free and independent people determined to safeguard its liberty by shedding its blood. Ithiopia is the country in Africa which has kept Ge'ez and Amharic with an alphabet of its own. InI have also laid a firm foundation for the freedom, prestige and happiness of the present generation in the fields of education and development in accordance with the conditions now existing.
Those who will be serving the people in future should follow this same path in endeavouring to develop their country and maintain her freedom. This is one of the main responsibilities of teachers.
As it is InI constant concern to produce teachers in abundance and thereby speed up the educational advancement and progress of InI beloved people, InI are very happy to see so many students in this school being trained as future teachers.
InI express InI heart-felt thanks to the United States Government which, having realized InI great concern for the spread of education, rendered a financial help in the construction of this school. Ithiopia and America have a long-standing friendship and this building is one of the many manifestations of this feeling of friendship, mutual help and co-operation.
InI have earlier explained the extent to which the responsibility of teachers go. You should always bear in mind that it is your duty to see to it that your country solves the current problem of a shortage of teachers. A teacher is no mere instructor of letters; he should be one who has properly ordered and controlled his manner and character and be an exemplary and who shoulders a heavy responsibility. May God the Almighty make you leaders as well as followers.
OCTOBER 15, 1962
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