Conant Calls for Better Education For Gifted Youths, 2-Year Colleges

President Conant predicted yesterday that the demand by young people for college education will "continue to mount in coming years," and reiterated his plea for the establishment of community two-year community colleges to meet this growth.

Writing in the New York Times Magazine, Conant also urged that these two-year colleges become-the-center of the nation's adult education program.

"Individuals may get stuck in unsuitable jobs," Conant said. "Through the medium of education in spare time, opportunity should be offered to men and women in their late twenties or even in their thirties to change their specialized vocations.

Adult Education

"The community colleges should be the focal points for expanding programs of both general and specialized education, which one can easily prophesy will be of increasing significance in the second half of the 20th century," he declared.

The two-year terminal colleges should be locally financed, Conant said, in order to maintain "the American doctrine of local autonomy in educational matters."

The two year colleges Conant proposes would combine vocational and liberal arts education. This general education program would be aimed, Conant said, at the "further development of what was begun at the high school level to make young people more effective citizens and individuals better prepared to lead a satisfying life."