ARMY EDUCATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 113, 15 May 1942, Page 3

ARMY EDUCATION

AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM ■ VARIETY OF COURSES Covering thousands of members in camps all over Australia and as far afield as Port Moresby (New Guinea), the education scheme of the Australian Military Forces now embraces many courses. A new recruit to the scheme is an American soldier, who has begun a correspondence course in accountancy.

Soldiers anxious to learn more of peacetime jobs, or to learn new work with an eye to the future, as well as to fill in spare time, can choose from the following courses: Arithmetic, wool classing, dairy inspection, algebra, English, geometry, elementary science, business courses, trade and engineering courses, carpentry, joinery, building construction, cinematograph operation, illumination, motor mechanics, fitting, Diesel engine operation, factory and mining engine driving, agriculture, care of animals, accountancy, auditing, meat inspection. Each week University professors, lecturers, teachers, experts in their subjects, set off in army trucks on voluntary education tours to set camps and uniis. Some lecture in camp halls at nights to audiences of up to 2000. Some stay at wayside bivouacs during a rest period, and give a halfhour talk to 30 men and then move on to another similiar group. As many as five or six such talks may be given during the day. At night the same lecturer, now miles from where he started his day, will lecture to a large audience in a mess hut or marquee.

In March 550 lectures were given, with an attendance of 84.379 men.

Educational and documentary films are part of the scheme. In and out of hospital 328 have been screened, and 65,915 men have attended.

Much can be learnt by correspondence, a section that is growing each week. The pupil pays 15/ for one subject, the army pays 10/, and if the pupil works systematically his 15/ is refunded. Sydney and Melbourne Technical Colleges supply the correspondence course.

Training Patients

Hospital patients come under the scheme, partly to relieve the tedium and partly to help them with vocational training before their discharge. Patients taking a course make noticeable improvement in many cases with their medical treatment.

Vocational training for men unable to return to their old work, through war injuries, is undertaken by the education officers, who interview them in hospital, find out what they want to do and start them off. The Repatriation Department takes them over after their discharge from the army. , Hospital courses are supplemented by tuition from voluntary instructors, men from technical schools and universities giving up their time two or three times a In one hospital a returned soldier of the last war is instructing soldier patients of this war in leatherwork. Manv patients want reading matter dealing with their previous occupations. Actual classes throughout camp number 92 for 872 men. Because of troop and camp movements, it is difficult to organise regular classes. Discussion groups are developing and hobby groups total 194, with 3287 men engaged in craft work of various kinds. Gardening is also featured—some camps grow their own vegetables. Making scale mode, aeroplanes has created great interest in units, and in one camp 288 models have been completed.

Pig raising Is possible at another camp, where a start was made with the gift of some pedigree pigs. A gift of ]000 bricks has helped one unit in its bricklaying classes.

Demand for Music

Music is not the least popular item of the scheme. lieutenant Isidor Goodman, who travels round in an army truck with a baby Grand carefully embedded in packing, finds the army always anxious to hear music. Most popular music, he finds, is the light classic, and the most f reciuent demand is for Liszt's Second Rhapsody. One man in 25 asks for jazz or swing. So he generally plays a programme of four Chopin numbers and lighter numbers.

Symphony concerts at camps have shown that men appreciate Mozart, and sit through a Haydn symphony with enjoyment. A weekly talk on music, with piano demonstration by a well-known pianist, is a popular follow-up of the symphony concert in one camp. An orchestra of 20 performers has been formed by another soldier musician from military personnel attached to one H.Q., and he hopes it will develop into a good symphony orchestra.

Ninety per cent of the Army Education magazine is written by service personnel. Many letters have been received from American soldiers praising the journal.