EDUCATION IN THE ARMY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 99, 16 May 1941, Page 2

EDUCATION IN THE ARMY

Vast Network Of Cultural Facilities

VERY unit of the British Army-every battalion, battery and similar formation ~--has been ordered by the War Office to provide itself with a Unit Educatjon Officer. He is an officer already serving in the unit, and his new job does not release him from his ordinary military duties. This is the man on whom the troops depend, in the last resort, for the quality and palatability of their educational rations. Above him are organisers and co-ordinators by the hundred; but in that vast delta of administration the Unit Education Officer is the only channel that matters to the serving soldier. On the whole, Commanding Officers have picked the right men for the jobs, Their choice, for instance, has not inevitably fallen upon a subaltern: there are hundreds of units in which a captain has been picked, there are scores in which the second-in-command is acting as Education Officer. There are cases, of course, in which a sceptical or indifferent C.O. has been content to assign this important office to a nitwit who has been found wanting in other duties, but on the whole it is true to say that C.O.’s have not only welcomed the Army Education Scheme, but have taken pains to put good officers in the key positions (writes W. E. Williams in The New Statesman and Nation). Where does this Unit Education Officer get the educational rations for his men? The first source is the civilian lecture system provided by the numerous Regional Committees for Adult Education in the Forces. These Committees are made up of the usual peace-time providers of Advanced Education — University Extra-Mural Depts., the W.E.A., the Local Education Authorities, etc-and they supply panels of experienced lecturers on every subject under the sun. Where the Speakers Come From The Unit Education Officer has access to these panels, through a_ simple liaison provided by the Army Educational Corps, and he can be sure of getting a lecture a week by a speaker who not only knows how to talk but who can also handle questions and _ discussion. afterwards. The Adult Education movement has put its back into this job, and the Army is well pleased with the stuff it gets from this valuable source.

But for many reasons the Army must supplement .this "imported" ration, Many units are difficult to reach; the supply of civilian lecturers was only just enough to go round in peacetime for an aggregate audience of 100,000 a year; the Army shifts about, the Army works and plays at inconvenient hours, the Army may go overseas. It seemed imperative, therefore that units should seek home-produced education to augment the imported product. This purpose is the very heart and kernel of the War Office pamphlet on "Education in the Wartime Army." It is based on the belief that, in this modern Army, there are thousands of officers and men able and willing to forgo some of their spare time to giving talks and leading discussion groups in their units. To discover and utilise this amateur talent is the business of the Unit Education Officer, very often aided by a small unit committee of all: ranks. By combing his unit records, by nosing around and bustling about, he is already discovering, on an encouraging scale, the men who can edify and interest their comrades, Typical discoveries of this sort are architects who can talk on town-planning, town councillors who can explain local government, commercial artists who can vamp up in others a talent, for drawing, journalists who are knowledgeable about foreign affairs, or university students who can sign-post the way to literary appreciation. The volume of this unit talent is considerable, although its incidence is uneven. There are units so well-off that they can lend their spare talent to their neighbours; and there are units which can scarcely raise a volunteer to talk about the most simple hobby. Local Education Authorities The other main source, on a more organised and purposeful scale, is that willing horse the Local Education Authority. Where technical institutes are handy they are thrown open, at no cost to the men, to those who want to initiate or brush-up a course in some commercial or technical subject. The text-books and the apparatus are put freely at the men’s disposal, and the Army provides transport within a twenty-mile radius to take troops into the neighbouring towns for such courses. This is a service distinct from and additional to the help which L.E.A.’s give through their representation on Regional Committeees, additional, as well, to the considerable and indispensable aid the L.E.A,’s give to Army education through

the services of their County Libraries. Many other auxiliaries lend the Army a hand-such as the Rural Music Schools, C.E.M.A., the British Drama League, the British Council; and, by and large, the Unit Officer setting out with his shopping-basket has many helpful and well-stocked retailers at his service. Giving Them What They Want His duty is not only to supply a demand, however, but to organise it. By inquiry within the unit-or by the display of appetising samples-he soon gets to know what his men would like, and by comparing this list of " wants" with his catalogue of available supplies he usually reaches an acceptable compromise. He can’t stock everything, he can’t procure everything, but by scrounging and improvising he often manages to provide a programme which attracts a 50 per cent. approval from his unit. There are, indeed, many units in which half or three-quarters of the men voluntarily attend lectures and classes. And if that figure were very much less it would still outrange the massed membership of all forms of adult education in peacetime. The Army is taking to education on a scale which far exceeds the most sanguine prognostications. Attendance at all classes and courses under the Army Education Scheme is voluntary. Often enough the C.O, parades the men for the initial meeting, because he holds the reasonable view that, whether they want it or not, they are "damn well going to hear what it’s all about." But, except for odd cases of misconception or misplaced zeal, there is no parading for classes. They are held, of course, after duty hours, yet during February, 1941, no fewer than 3,427 set lectures were given in this country apart from 2,400 classes and numerous meetings of informal groups, hobby-clubs, music and drama circles and the like. The Army Educational Corps The administration of this scheme, on the Army side, is in the hands of the Army Educational Corps-under an experienced civilian Director from the Board of Education. This small body of officers and warrant-officers comprises the hierachy through which the Unit Education Officers are supplied and advised. There are Command Education Officers, Area Education Officers and Divisional Education Officers. These are full-time specialists, comparable to the administrative side of an L.E.A. or a University Extra-Mural Department. When the A.E.C. was enlarged a little time ago there was an avalanche of applications for it; yet, until recently, the A.E.C, was the least-regarded and least-requited service in the British

Army. After the last war many of the keenest young officers and sergeants transferred to the A.E.C, These are the officers who now take administrative control of the new scheme-and they are proving to be as capable and zealous a crowd as anyone could hope for. They have not been frustrated by two decades of obscurity; they have laid their legitimate grievances aside, and they are putting long hours and much organising skill into their new chance. What is more, they recognise the difference between army schoolmastering of the old style and this vast new network of cultural facilities. Many of them are men of real intellectual quality, and they have nothing to learn of the game from their civilian equivalents. The A.E.C. has recently been enlarged; and among the men who have gone into it are ex-L.E.A. officials, exW.E.A. tutors, ex-schoolmasters and so on. The Corps, can, indeed, be regarded now as a very expert and enthusiastic collection of educational administrators. Cheap at the Price Finally, on my rough reckoning; the total cost of Army education in the country is about 2s 6d a head. It’s cheap at the price, and it deserves a run for its money.