- A confidential study into the educational standards of
soldiers has revealed that half of all new infantry recruits only have
the reading and writing skills of 11-year-olds.
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- The study commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, which
the Telegraph has seen, also discloses that a fifth of recruits have the
literacy and numeracy levels of seven-year-olds. Four per cent are at the
standard of the average five-year-old.
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- Among the problems uncovered were one soldier who admitted
that he struggled to write letters to his young daughter and another who
wrote "riht" for write, "cepe" instead of keep, and
"rifel" for rifle.
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- The findings have raised fears among defence chiefs that
soldiers of the future may not be able to operate the new generation of
"smart" weapon systems that will dictate how battles are fought.
Officers, who are more highly qualified, were not included in the study.
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- Within the next 10 years, the Army will be issued with
equipment that will require all frontline soldiers to be computer literate
and numerically literate if they are to fight and survive on the battlefield.
They will also need to be able to read and understand ever-more complicated
training manuals.
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- By 2010, the Ministry of Defence plans to equip the Army
with a new fleet of armoured vehicles linked by a computer network and
equipped with the most sophisticated weapons, communications and target-finding
equipment available.
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- The £2 billion programme will become a cornerstone
of the Army and will be used by basic tank and infantry soldiers, who will
require a high degree of computer literacy to operate it.
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- The study into the educational standards of recruits
was based on the results of 2,000 basic skills assessments of new privates
compiled by Melanie Dickinson, a civilian instructor at the Infantry Training
Centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire.
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- It reveals that four per cent of new recruits possessed
a basic skill level equivalent to a five-year-old; 20 per cent equivalent
to a seven-year-old; 50 per cent equivalent to an 11-year-old and 26 per
cent had literacy levels equivalent to GCSE grades D to G in English and
mathematics.
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- The reports states that there is a growing belief within
the Army that believes that soldiers should be screened at recruiting centres
for basic skills and those who are not up to an acceptable standard should
be rejected.
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- Ms Dickinson admits, however, that this could create
problems. "This could mean that the infantry would lose at least 25
per cent of its recruits in one go - and my own experience of 16 years
in the Army tells me that you would also lose many good soldiers."
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- The report adds: "Nowadays there are very few soldiers
who are entirely illiterate or innumerate, but there are a lot of soldiers
who can't cope with the level of written information they are expected
to understand."
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- The report goes on to say that the lowest educational
level at which soldiers are accepted into the Army, called Basic Skills
Level 1, is "widely accepted as the minimum level required to work
and function in society in general".
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- No educational qualifications are necessary for privates
seeking to join the Army, except for those who wish to train in technical
trades such as signals, the Army Air Corps or the the various corps of
engineers.
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- An applicant's suitability for a particular form of employment
is determined by the results of an initial assessment, using computer touch-screen
questions and answers.
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- A senior Army officer told the Telegraph: "Just
because soldiers have literacy or numeracy issues, it does not mean they
are stupid. Some of these individuals have very high IQs but they have
been very poorly educated. There are soldiers serving in the SAS who struggle
with reading and writing, yet they survive and become first-class soldiers,
but they are the exception.
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- "The problem the Army faces is that the demands
of modern military technology means that soldiers must possess more than
the most basic of educational skills.
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- "In the very near future the basic infantryman will
have to operate satellite navigation and target acquisition equipment in
highly stressful conditions. If he can't read and write very well he will
struggle to make the grade."
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