§ 94. Sir J. BUTCHERasked the Secretary of State for War whether he can give further details as to the educational scheme which is being carried on in the various Armies of Occupation, and as to the different classes of officers and men for whom this scheme is specially designed?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI am circulating a full statement in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ The following is the statement referred to:
§ An Army Order consolidating previous Orders and extending educational training in the Armies of Occupation is now under consideration. In the Army at home, the Army in France and Flanders, the Army of the Rhine, and the Armies of the Middle East and at Murmansk, staff officers and officers attached to the General Staff supervise the scheme, and instructors are authorised on a maximum scale of four officers and twelve non-commissioned officers per 1,000 men. Subjects are grouped, so that, as a rule, instruction is given to all men in matters of general education—English, arithmetic or elementary mathematics, history, geography and civics, together with subjects chosen, to a limited number, from other groups which comprise languages, advanced history, commercial subjects to a high standard, engineering, pure science, and higher mathematics. Technical and trade classes are supplemented at home by arrangements specially made with the local educational authorities; in the Army of the Rhine, promising men are drafted from units to divisional corps or Army schools. There are at home two schools for officer 1391 in commercial and technical subjects, each taking 200 officers at a time for a month's instruction. Two schools, at Oxford and Newmarket, have been instituted to give intensive courses in the art of teaching to officers and non-commissioned officers who possess knowledge but have had little or no teaching experience.
§ Army education certificates will be given to men who attend classes satisfactorily, and a special certificate to men passing examinations in their subjects of an advanced standard; this latter certificate has been recognised by the universities and leading professional bodies as exempting from matriculation or the entrance examination. With regard to the second part of my hon. and learned Friend's question, all classes of officers and men may apply for instruction. Special arrangements are in force for the education of young soldiers, who attend classes as part of their military duties, as also do the men of the Army on the Rhine. Otherwise, no distinction is made, and the work actually going on includes alike elementary education, trade classes, work for the examinations of professional bodies, and work at a university level.