The people's voice., 1954-10-01

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In French Guinea, bearded patri-
archs in their Cos meet with their
grandchildren each week before the
blackboard beneath the mango trees
for the weekly lesson in reading and
writing.
On obscure battlefields throughout
the world, man is waging new war"
the war against ignorance.
For eyewitness coverage of this
war, the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization
invited four top reporters to cover
the battle on its far-flung fronts over
three continents. From Asia, from
Latin America, from Africa, the cor
respondents sent in front-line reports,
now collected in a UNESCO publica-
ton, Men Against Ignorance.
UNESCO is one of the United Ma
tions organizations for which labor
and liberal groups urged support by
the United States during the past
session of Congress.
GREAT WAR STORY
The four eporters-Ritchie Cald-
er, science editor of the LONDON
NEWS CHRONICLE, Ronald Stead
foreign correspondent of the CHRIS
TIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, Andre
Blanchet of LIE MONDE in Paris, and
Thor Mende of the French periodical
REALITIES that the struggle
for knowledge is proving one of the
great "war stories" of our time.
From Asia, Ronald Stead writes:
''All over India the lamp-lit classes in
the villages are multiplying. All over
other countries of the region as well.
It can be said, literally as we'll as
that the lights are
going up in South and Southeast
Asia"
In an area where eight out of every
o people can neither read nod write,
dr. Stead finds an ever-accelerating
ace towards learning. In Ceylon, the
,udget allotment for education out
f current revenue is 10 times more
han it was 10 years ago. In Burma,
he government plans to increase pri-
nary schools by thousand year for
he next 15 years at an annual cost of
etween 60 and 70 million rupees
lose to 10 per cent of the entire ma
ional budget and more than twice
he 1850 allocation In Thailand, the
ing has decreed that education must
e number one" in the priority list
f national enterprises.
TECHNIQUE is BORN
From West Africa, Andre Blanchet
rites that "a technique has been
orn, which can help directly or in
irectly influence the evolution of
100000 human beings"
He is referring to the newest en-
lusiasm in the villages-the movies.
IL through Africa the people are be-
0ming cinema fans; there are 80 :
6-mm. projectors in French Guinea
one. Schools open at nightfall, when
le projectors can flash the nights
sson onto the big sheet stretched
ross the mango trees. How do the
lpils like night-school? Mr.. Blanchet
escribes one memorable night in
ogoland,' when the village women
rev themselves on the road in front
the lorry carrying the protector to
lother village to keep their movies
ON leaving them. ,,
From travelling teachers and popu- i,
+ educational movies native women
e learning to sew, embroider, knit,
e scissors, write-on the soles of
cir sandals, because they have no
bles. They are learning how to
unit, an invaluable aid in such tasks
giving their babies the right
lount of food. Their husbands are :
arning things they never dreamed
before-that it is unhealthy to i.
are your house with livestock, that =
is wise to plant trees to shelter
urself from the sun.
AR LONG, DIFFICULT +
In villages where the human head g