LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Word Blindness in the Army
Ste The Royal Army Education Corps recently conducted a survey of the standard of literacy among National Servicemen. It makes dis- turbing reading. Not the least interesting feature of it is the different incidence of backwardness amongst men recruited in different parts of the country. The enquiry covered all National Servicemen recruited in England, wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight, in May, June, ItiLlY and August, 1952. The incidence of both illiteracy on the one hand, and sub-literacy and backwardness on the other, was lowest in Scotland and highest in Wales, with the English figures much nearer, to -the Scottish than to the Welsh. Amongst the Scottish recruits illiteracy was almost negligible—twenty-one men out of nearly 5,000— b n nearly one-fifth were " sub-literate or backward." In England Over one per cent. of the men were illiterate, and more than a fifth sub-literate or backward. For Wales the corresponding figures were both much higher—seventy-one men, or over three per cent. of those recruited, illiterate, and nearly thirty per cent. sub-literate or backward.
As between Scotland and England, the most striking difference is in the incidence /of illiteracy. In only four of the English counties were there no illiterates amongst the men recruited, whereas in Scotland a large majority of the areas had a clean bill in this respect, although, Lough, of course, generally speaking the population of the Scottish areas was considerably smaller than that of the English counties. In a few of the Welsh counties also, though only those producing a very Entail number of recruits, illiteracy was absent; but, throughout Wales, the incidence of all three degrees of backwardness together was uniformly high. In no county was it less than twenty-seven per cent.; for only y two was it less than thirty per cent.; in two it was over ■ rty ota per cent. The possible explanation which springs to mind here is the effect of bi-lingualism. It would seem that the attempt to make children proficient in two languages tends to diminish their efficiency in at least one of them. Whether this is the principal reason or not, it is evident that some factor or factors operate in Welsh education to make the attainment of proficiency in English more difficult than it for Scottish or English children. Differences even greater than those between Wales and England or Scotland are to be found between different parts of those countries themselves. In the case of some of the districts the figures are too small to be used with confidence. Thus the English area showing Lli.e highest percentage of illiteracy and backwardness is the Isle of for which the figure is forty per cent.; but only seventeen of the men classified came from that region. On the other hand, the figure for the county of Norfolk was almost as high, at thirty-eight per cent., and M this case the " sample," nearly 400 men, was probably large lough to be significant. The lowest figure recorded in England was siateen per cent —in Bedfordshire, Middlesex and Westmorland—and this grouping indicates the difficulty of guessing with any confidence at the reasons for the similarities and differences. Unfortunately, ° cial statistics concerning education in England generally relate to the principal administrative areas—the county boroughs and the administrative counties—while the War Office figures on backwardness in.the Army relate to geographical counties, the county boroughs not b nne treated separately. It is thus not possible to compare for identical areas the incidence of backwardness- with, say, expenditure per child on primary and secondary education, or the average size of classes, or similar factors which might contribute to backwardness; nor is it possible to compare urban with rural areas. No doubt this is because the other statistics of recruiting lire normally compiled on the basis of geographical counties; but it is to be hoped that in due course the Army authorities will be able to present the facts about Ar.tnY literacy in a form which would make it possible to draw the televant deductions from them.—Yours faithfully,
University of Leeds.
S. G. RAYBOULD.
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