§ 2.34 p.m.
§ [The question was as follows:
§ To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any comment to make on the statement attributed to the Chief of the General Staff in the Daily Telegraph of January 14 that 10 per cent. of the entrants into the Army under the National Service Act have been found to be illiterate.]
§ The MINISTER of CIVIL AVIATION (Lord Nathan)My Lords, I understand that what the Chief of the Imperial General Staff actually said was that one in ten of the last National Service intake at a particular primary training centre which he had visited was illiterate. The proportion of illiterates in this particular intake was much greater than the general average of all such recruits joining at primary training centres. About 2 per cent. of current intakes into the Army have to be sent to special elementary education courses as being either illiterate or of extremely low literacy.
Lord MOYNIHANMy Lords, arising out of that reply, may I ask whether the Government are quite satisfied that this illiteracy is an exception, and is not the result of the evacuation of children during the war? May I have an assurance that it is not likely to remain at this very high level, even at one primary training centre.
§ Lord NATHANThe explanation may be that which the noble Lord has suggested. It is certainly to be hoped that that degree of illiteracy will not continue.