TABLE I.—Graduations from Soviet higher educational institutions in 1960 Engineering (detail in table II)___ Agricultural engineering (irrigation, farm mechanization, etc.)--- Total in engineering - Agriculture and forestry.. Health (mostly physicians). 22, 100 27,500 Total in all scientific and technical fields. In subjects other than scientific and technical: Total graduations in humanities, social sciences, economics, law, pedagogy, and library sciences_ 189, 300 152, 700 Total U.S.S.R. graduations from higher educational institutions 1 121,000 in 1961. TABLE II.—Engineering graduations from Soviet higher educational institutions 342, 000 Chemical technology- Technology of food products.. Technology of consumer goods_ Forest engineering and the technology of lumber, cellulose, and paper__ 8, 138 6,299 5, 702 3,724 3, 396 Electrification of the processes of agricultural production_ Forest engineering-. Total Total engineers, of all types --- 3, 109 17, 760 612 668 6, 620 107, 889 826 6, 742 1, 021 1, 330 2, 324 12, 243 120, 132 TABLE III.—Annual graduations from higher educational institutions in scientifictechnical fields, 1928-60 Biological sciences__. TABLE IV. Total professional manpower in the U.S.S.R. in 1960 (graduates of higher educational institutions by general field in which education was received) Engineering... Physical sciences and mathematics. Medicine and pharmacy (including 400,000 physicians). 24, 000 Agriculture (agronomists, veterinarians, foresters, etc.) Total number with scientific or technical training 1,952, 000 Professional manpower trained in education, law, economics, humanities, etc.- 1, 593, 000 Total Soviet professional manpower (with complete higher TABLE V.-Distribution of professional engineers in the U.S.S.R., by place of employment, 1955 and 1960 3, 545, 000 Place of employment 1955 1960 Industrial, construction, transportation, communications and other organizations_ 290, 200 Administrative organizations.. 65, 500 550, 300 85,900 TABLE VI. Total semiprofessional manpower in the U.S.S.R. in 1960 (graduates of specialized secondary schools) Educated in technical fields: Agronomists, veterinarians, etc.__ 1, 931, 000 381, 000 1, 187, 000 Total 3, 499, 000 Educated in other fields: Statistics, pedagogy, trade, library work, etc.---. 1, 740, 000 Total number with specialized secondary education__ 5, 239, 000 TABLE VII.-Number of individuals holding advanced degrees in the U.S.S.R. in 1960 (holders of Kandidat and Doktor degrees) Total number of individuals holding degrees of kandidat and 106, 000 TABLE VIII.-Soviet research and development personnel, 1955 and 1960 The term "scientists" here corresponds to the category "scientific workers" used in Soviet statistics ess those engaged in research and teaching in the social sciences and humanities. The totals given for This category in Soviet statistics, including social sciences and humanities, are for 1955, 223,893; for 1960, 54,158; and for 1961, 404,200. 3 NOTE. The usefulness of this table is that it shows growth rates within the frame of reference of Soviet statistics. Individual categories cannot be defined clearly enough to warrant comparisons with U.S. figures. Mr. CANNON. Admiral Rickover, Mr. Fogarty's subcommittee in the 87th Congress had before it Mr. McMurrin, the Commissioner of Education. I must confess I am astonished on reading his testimony to find that he largely agrees with you. Admiral RICKOVER. Yes he does. I must say I am encouraged when I read what he says. He recently wrote an article in which he raised all the points about American education that have been worrying me. It's been like a breath of fresh air. The only trouble is that he has this entrenched bureaucracy to deal with. THE DIFFICULTY OF EFFECTING SCHOOL REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES As I said, school reforms have had to be undertaken in many countries. So that's nothing new. But I don't know of any country where it is so difficult to make a change as in ours where we have this enormous educational establishment. It's no use blinking at the fact that the people who run this establishment have committed themselves repeatedly and volubly to progressive education. They have a vested interest in it. In many cases it is the only kind of education they know or they can handle. And then there are all sorts of other people with a vested interest in the status quo-the National Education Association; school administrators who have never taught a class and who aren't teachers; who wouldn't have their jobs if we copied the European system of putting well-educated and qualified teachers in charge of the school system and giving them whatever clerical help they need. Then there are the coaches with a vested interest in continuing athletic spectacles; the textbook publishers with a vested interest in the look-say method of teaching to read. And I suppose once we commit ourselves to machine teaching, the manufacturers of these machines will achieve such a strong vested interest that we shall never be able to reinstate the teacher, even if we should discover that machine teaching isn't as good as teaching by a live human. I am afraid Mr. McMurrin may not stay long enough on the job to make his viewpoint strongly felt. This is one of our troubles. We shift people around too much. We seem to think that a person who has held one administrative position can instantly step into any other administrative position and do useful work. But today all really important jobs require that persons in authority first acquaint themselves with their particular responsibilities and then stay on long enough to put this competence to use. As it is, the men in command of our huge Government bureaucracies wander in and out of top positions, rarely staying long enough to make their nominal command truly effective. To be effective a leader must understand the technical work of the organization he heads. This is where the British have had a great advantage in their efforts to improve public education. From the start, the men who headed the central education authority in London were the very ones who had long agitated for school reform and who were personally involved in getting Parliament to enact the requisite laws. And these people stayed on the job for long periods of time so that they really were able to accomplish something. We don't do that. We have the same trouble in the Navy. Officers are shifted in and out of the most complex technical jobs every 2 or 3 years. Just about the time they get the hang of a particular job, they are transferred. The idea back of this is to alternate tours of sea duty and shore duty and also to give officers experience with every type of naval duty so they can become versatile. This may have worked in the past when such versatility had to do with what might be called the strictly naval qualifications of the naval officer; that is, when this versatility did not have to include competence to direct highly technical scientific and engineering work. Today design and construction of nuclear ships as well as the design of modern weapons, such as missiles, has become so complex and difficult a job that to allow technically untrained officers to exercise authority over this work during brief tours of duty must lead to inefficiency and sometimes to extremely serious errors. Even the operation of modern warships becomes daily more of a technical job. These ships now are comparable to our most advanced industrial plants. To run them is essentially an engineering rather than a naval job. Even their use in naval combat now requires scientific and engineering skill rather than the skills of a professional naval officer. Theoretically, a competent team from General Electric or Westinghouse could operate a nuclear submarine or launch a missile. In fact, the important and difficult aspects of missile launchings are now in civilian hands. On the other hand, a naval officer cannot, without extensive training, take charge of a nuclear ship. Without this training it is doubtful he would be competent to make wise decisions as to how best to use these entirely new types of warships, how to operate them to assure maximum safety, or whether it is expedient for these ships to enter foreign ports. Untrained officers do not seem to realize the disastrous consequences that might follow wrong decisions made by persons who do not fully comprehend the danger potential of nuclear power. I mention this by way of illustration that we can no longer assume, as we did in the past, that anybody can do anything. This was part of the Jacksonian creed. Indeed, in pioneer days Americans were jacksof-all-trades and remarkably skillful in most. But today the requirements have risen. It would seem advisable that we take account of this fact and manage our public business so as to give people in authority a chance not only to become competent on the job but also to make full use of this new-won competence before being moved to another position. I hope Mr. McMurrin will stay on long enough to get his ideas translated into practice. But, in any event, it is encouraging that for the first time in many decades there is someone at the head of the Office of Education who does not have the National Education Association viewpoint. I should like to take this as a sign that at long last we are beginning to throw off the incubus of progressivism and that we shall now get busy undoing the errors of the progressives that have done so much harm to our children and to our Nation. It has been said that it takes 50 years for half the educators to adopt a manifestly good new idea. But today we don't have 50 years tolerance and I hope Mr. McMurrin can help to reduce this time drastically. Mr. CANNON. We have reason to be concerned about our system of education. The future of our country and the future of the world. rests on the way in which we train the next generation. For instance, I notice you said just now, and I notice that Commissioner McMurrin said: The quality of teaching generally is lower by far than it should be and lower too than it need be. It is here that we confront our greatest failure in matters pertaining to education. Then you said a while ago, and he said in corroboration: In the future every effort must be made to identify persons of highest intellectual competence and talent in the art of teaching and to attract them to the teaching profession, and standards of our colleges and education must be made to exclude those who do not have real promise. Commissioner McMurrin is at the head officially, as far as the Government is concerned, of our educational system, and he seems to agree with your criticism. ASPECTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION WHICH SHOULD BE STUDIED EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF TIME AND MONEY Now, you have been studying this for 2 years. What is there in the English system we could adopt with profit? Admiral RICKOVER. I will be glad to answer that, sir. There are several aspects of English education I believe could be profitably studied by us. First, the efficiency of her present-day school system in terms of utilization of time and money. As I said before, in this respect English education is not quite as advanced as education in some continental countries but it is closer to ours, so we might find it easier to adopt some of her practices. English children |