EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 5 January 1928, Page 7

EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

ILLITERACY IN THE! ARMY. A WAR HERITAGE. PARIS, Dec. 24. A serious increase in illiteracy among young men called up for service in the French army is revealed by the report of M. Bouilkrax-Lafont, Rapporteur on the AVar Budget. It is highly desirable, the Rapporteur points out, that more attention should be paid to the education of soldiers, during their period of service; but at the same time he recognises that, with the reduction of this term from eighteen months to, one year, the whole of the soldier’s time is required for purely military training. He has quoted .some striking figures to show now great has been the fall in the educational level of the troops since the war. At Amiens the percentage of illiterates an 1912 was 4, as compared with 10 in 1926; at Rennes it was 1.5 per cent, in 1912 and 7 per cent, in 1926; at Bordeaux 3.5 per cent in 1912 and 7 per cent, in 1926 ; while at Le Mans it had risen from 2.5 per cent, to- 8.5 per cent., and at Rouen from 3.5 per cent, to 11 per cent. It is generally believed that this growth of illiteracy is only a passing phase due to the war period, during which the shortage of teachers and the scarcity of labour conspired to keep young boys at work instead, of at school.