THOUSANDS ILLITERATE

Shannon News, 23 April 1926, Page 2

THOUSANDS ILLITERATE

AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION. BAD RECORD IN THE NORTH. There are 41,200 Australian-born people in the commonwealth above me age of nine years who are unable to read or write. At the time ilitse figures were ascertained they mpresented 11 per cent, of tlie total population over nine years. In addition, there are some 1,6,000 people not born in Australia who can only read and write a foreign language, writes E. M. Webb,, in the "Melbourne Herald.” The Statistician tells us these filings, alid he has indisputable authority to back him up. Things, of course, are not so bad as they were, illiteracy was common enough sixty or seventy years ago. Then some 24 per cent, ot the people who married signed the marriage register by making a mark. To-day not 1, per cent, of those who go to tlie altar cannot .sign their names and even some of those' who cannot are able to write; out, so it is said, become so flustered that their fingers temporarily ioso .lie knack. Sixty years ago, when the population was only 668,000, there were 2615 children of school age who could neither read nor write, At the last census in 1921 The proportion was 1272 illiterate children of school age to a population of 5,435,734. It is a peculiar fact that among file illiterates the males arc far more ■ numerous than the females. The only available explanation is that boys are more prone to piay what Australians call “the wag,” and Aihericans designate “hookey.” The preponderance of illiteracy among males obtains right throughout the Commonwealth. It seems that in' their school days lots of boys are bad little bpys, but very few of the girls are' bad little girls. In the whole of Australia the illiterate males represent 1.5 per cent, of persons above the age of nine years, whereas the females constitute only 0.7 per cent. Nine is taken as a minimum because all children at that age should be able to read and write. There are vast numbers of illiterates below the age of nine, as is only natural. They are, however, not, inarticulate.

A little exploration among the statistics pertaining to illiteracy in the Commonwealth shows in a very clear manner' the efficiency of the various State education systems. Illiteracy is, after all, the best mirror in which our education systems may be reflected. If there are few illiterates the system may be termed good. If there are many, then the system cannot be up to the mark, in order to be quite lair, wc eliminate all children up to the age of nine „years and those of foreign birth, and take the remainder of the Aus-tralian-born populace. In doing so wo find that, judged, on illiteracy, Victoria’s education system is the most effective. The percentage of illiterate males in- this State is only 0.8, duid the females 0.5. West. Australia comes next with 1.2 per cent, illiterate males and 0.7 females. Queensland has 1.5 per cent, males and 0.9 per cent, females. South Australia and Now South Wales arc a. dead in respect to males, with 1.7 per cent; but - South Australia wins by having only 0.9 per cent, illiterate females, as against 1 per cent, in New South Wales. Tasmania is the woi'st case of all the States. It has 4.3 per cent, illiterate males and 1.9 per cent, females. There have been some very bad little boys in Tasmania, and we arc afraid that girls have not been such good little girls as they might have been. Our explorations in illiteracy have uncovered one astounding fact. There are in Australia twenty-seven persons wlio, all hough they were born in the country, are only able to road and write a foreign language. Of these sixteen are males anu eleven females. It is only right to state, however, that these Australians who do not know their own language are resident in the Northern Territory.