Evening star., 1943-08-15

The largest adult school system ir
the world is being run by the Army
and the Navy, the once of Wal
Information reported yesterday
after a survey of the educational
program which the armed forces
are carrying out in almost every
field of instruction, technical and
cultural.
Much of this expert training which
soldiers, sailors, marines and coast
guardsmen are receiving will be
useful to them after they return to
civilian life, Owl concluded.
Eleven out of every IA able bodied
men between the ages of l8 and 35
| probably will be students in the
armed forces by the end of 1943. 1t
was estimated. Preinduction courses
the prep school of the services, will
instruct another 1000, 900.
Training Time Cut.
The serviceman," said owl, will
find his training as concentrated as
his field rations. Under pressure of
military necessity and by widespread
use of audio-visual aids, the armed
services have in many cases been
able to reduce training time greatly
owl pointed out that, on an aver
age, the Army was able to teach
illiterates to read. write and do
simple arithmetic in only IA hours
of class work. Already, $4,000 illi-
terates have been reclaimed" for
Army service, and it is estimated
100000 more can be thus fitted for
military service and later better
jobs in civil life.
One out of every three Army and
Navy jobs, Owl stated, is practically
identical with cilivian jobs, and most
of the other two-thirds develop
skills used also in civilian work.
owl added that the servicemar
twill find his chances Of getting 8
good technical education are at least
as good in the Army or Navy as they
would be in civilian life. Unless he
comes from a well-to-do family, his
educational opportunities are, ir
fact, better than out of the services.
Encouraged to Use Leisure.
Any high school or college course
Is open to him for a nominal fee by
correspondence, 1t was pointed out
and self-teaching courses are avail
able where correspondence is diff
cult. He has a chance to learn q
foreign language by quick, new
methods. He "is encouraged to use
his leisure time for improving his
mind"
Army and Navy have bought 10,-
600 900 books for leisure time read
ing and are planning to buy perhaps
IS ,000, 900 more. Magazines are sent
regularly to every company overseas
-rrAlready the armed services are
making plans to ease the service
mans return to civilian life" owl
added. The classification system
that helped assign him to his mill
tary job is being set to work in re-
verse, thus helping him to find the
right civilian job. Plans are also
being made to provide necessary
rehabilitation and to fill with useful
training some of the gap between
wars end and demobilization."
Pointing out that in this war the
only place for an unframed man is
at home, the report said: TT has
been possible in other wars to teach
a man close-order drill and the use
of a rifle and then send him into
battle. To send that kind of soldier
to fight the Afrika Korps would
have been murder. To give that
kind of sailor job on a modern
battleship might lose the ship
Navy Training Strict.
The crew of a battleship must
have had varying periods and kinds
of training before going to sea. All
must have eight weeks of basic ma
val training About 500 must have
an additional 16 weeks OF technical
schooling. Another 500 require, in
addition to basic and technical
training an advanced course-a to-
tai Of 80 weeks or more-before join
ing the fleet. Still another 500 must
have had considerable sea expert
ence and at least one term in feet
school. About 80 per cent Of the
sailors must complete the equivalent
of trade-school courses during their
naval service, and all must continue
to study and train AS long as they
are in active service. The officers
of course, all have had highly spe-