Page:Calcutta Review (1925) Vol. 16.djvu/512

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1925]
THE CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY AND ITS CRITICS
495

has not been possible for us to render any adequate and satisfactory tutorial assistance to the students. But if the re-commendations of Prof. Sarkar are to be given effect to, then the giving of any tutorial guidance to the students will become impossible. There can be no doubt that all students gain inestimably from an intimate association with a teacher of ripe experience and scholarly habits, a teacher who will not only assist him in solving difficulties but also inculcate in him the proper habits of study and thought. We can very well express our meaning in the words of the London University Commission’s Report—“It is the personal influence of the man doing original work in his subject which inspires belief in it, awakens enthusiasm, gains disciples............ ‘Any one,’ says Helmholtz, ‘who has once come into contact with one or more men of the first rank must have had his whole mental standard altered for the rest of his life.’ Lectures have not lost their use, and books can never fully take the place of the living spoken word. Still less can they take the place of the most intimate teaching in laboratory and seminar, which ought not to be beyond the range of the ordinary course of a University education.........”. Every possible effort, therefore, should be made to provide arrangements by which all students will receive, at least, some individual attention. This is also a mandatory requirement enjoined by Sec. 35 of Chapter XI of the Regulations. The supreme importance and value of a well-thought-out scheme of tutorial guidance in M.A. and M.Sc. teaching was recognised as early as 1913 by the Presidency College staff, headed by Principal James, in their memorandum on Post-Graduate organisation. This note has been printed in extenso as Appendix IV to the Post-Graduate Re-organisation Committee’s Report. Economy and efficiency cannot be measured by a mathematical standard; but, subject to the obvious reservation, namely, that an educational institution maintained for the Advancement of Learning cannot be run on commercial lines, the Post-graduate system of this University