LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ILLITERACY IN THE SERVICES
Bellenger's forthright admission of the extent of the illiteracy among new intakes into the Army draws attention to the grave problems facing educationists in the three Services. The Secretary for War was speaking at one of the Army's Schools of Education when he described the number of illiterate and semi-illiterate recruits as "appalling," and it is most unlikely that his audience disagreed with him. The problem is not really a new one. Before the war the degree of post-school-age illiteracy was largly disguised. It took conscription to provide us with something like accurate statistics of the educational state of the nation, and even then ffle war was fairly far advanced before the Services began to give detailed attention to the matter. Now, of course, recruits are carefully tested, and a true picture of the extent of the problem can be formed. Whether it is in fact worse than it was is a moot point. But there does seem to be something like a majority feeling in the Services that the ill effects educationally of the war-time evacuation schemes, and the very difficult conditions under which many schools had to carry on their work, are now becoming depressingly clear.
The incidence of the problem varies from Service to Service and within each Service. As one would expect, the Royal Navy is the least troubled by it. In the R.A.F. one hears an increasing volume of complaints ; but it is in the Army that one encounters illiteracy on an ominous scale. In military units receiving lower grade personnel—those in A.A. Command, for instance—it is not uncommon to come across Education Officers on the verge of despair over the poor quality of the recrwits they are attempting to instruct. Even allowing for war-time difficulties, these facts clearly constitute a formidable indictment of our State system of education. In the meantime, however, the Service authorities are—to use a colloquial phrase—" left holding the baby."
The achievements of Service education must not be belittled. One has only to visit the splendid Army Colleges and the Royal Navy's equivalent, H.M.S. 'Cabbala,' to see much fine work being done. But all the Services are suffering from a severe shortage of trained instructors, and now that the period of National Service is to be cut down to a year the battle of the timetable will inevitably be intensified. There are so many competing claims upon the recruit's time that, whatever theory may ordain, in practice education may tend to be squeezed out.
In the light of Mr. Bellenger's statement this would clearly be a minor disaster. But something more than a corps of educationists and ambitious paper plans are needed. Education in the Services stands or falls by the attitude of the local commanding officer, who can either make it a reality in his unit or frustrate it in the interests of what he considers to be more important matters. Is it too much to hope that the Service chiefs Will make it abundantly clear to all C.O.s that the educational needs of their men must not be sacrificed on the altar of drill parades and barrack-room fatigues ? Where this keen realisation of the value of education exists, it is remarkable what can be achieved in the Services. Northern Command is a good case in point. Here the Army authorities are largely going over to a system of static and centralised education centres serving all the units in their respective areas. This means that instructors and equipment can be concentrated, and a much more comprehensive programme offered than would be possible in individual units working on their own. There is, for instance, a remarkable garrison centre serving the Catterick area, which is thronged morning, afternoon and evening with an eager stream of students. In the barren military wilderness that a great garrison like Cattorick inevitably becomes this centre is a positive blessing, making competent instruction and good books readily available to large numbers of men.
Indeed, the whole sphere of Service education is full of wonderful opportunities. In recent years it has thrown up much more than its quota of fruitful new experiments. In addition to A.B.C.A., which has, of course, been copied far and wide, there is the Forces Preliminary Examination, which is a substitute School Certificate test, the Army Colleges and their equivalents in the other Services, and—through the good offices of the B.B.C.—the Forces Educational Broadcasts. These broadcasts are the first really comprehensive attempt- that has been made to put over adult education on the air. The programmes are now cele- brating their second birthday, and the B.B.C. has produced well over 1,000 special broadcasts for the Forces. With these achievements in its recent past, Service education is entitled to adequate political and public support. While it must not be expected to work miracles, it is capable of waging successful war on the illiteracy Mr. Bellenger rightly deplores, and might thus earn a rich dividend for the nation.—Yours, &c.,
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