RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

effort being made to build up the productive forces of societv. Better prepared and capacitated students are being asked of education at all levels. But the highest illiteracy rates are still in our countrieks. Furthermore, conventional school svstems are not able to keep up with the rapid pace of advancements in all areas of research and school svstems with limited facilities exist To meet the educational job required todav bv societv, the technologv of education must be expanded, and here television is of first order importance. The crisis in education is barelv touched on here but some mentions are needed to better appreciate the roots of the still low level of television’s participation in education. The objective is to be able later in this discussion to formulate the question and problems each can undertake to come to grips with, both individualv in our home countries and through international cooperation, if the better utilization of television to be achieved in education. F ог some of education’s ills, television mav well prove to be an effective cure. And its full potential can onlv be realized when used bv techniques and given a content appropriate to the medium and needs, and as an integrated part of the multi-media svstem. Can we together investigate the needs of television and educational television todav in our non-aligned countries? Experience has shown that television, instead of serving to accelerate progressive changes, can be abused to perpetuate the worst weaknesses in education. Those who аге witnesses of this must rebel. Educational television, experience proves, could to a much greater extent be a catalyst of the changes sought in developing education instead of just supporting and reflecting conventional education. The shortage of classroom space and trained teachers is a complaint in the industrially developed countries as well. Television, obviously, is a necessity everywhere. And it is a necessity speciallv because the pressure to meet growing social needs is increasing faster than school capacities to meet them. This can be seen from qualitative and quantitative analysis of educational achievement at all levels, especially with regard to the illiterate millions still below the elementary level of education. In the absence of an