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THE THREE R’s

Julian Huxley, in his foreword to a UNESCO reporton fundamental education,! quotes Lincoln’s words aboutthe nation half slave and half free being unable to stand,and emphasises that the same applies to a world inwhich half the people lack the elementary freedom of theability to read and write. Statistics show that illiteracyreaches vanishing-point in the countries of northernEurope (less than 1%), but in the British Army 20% ofrecruits during the war were found to be semi-literate ;Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Bulgaria have illiteracy-ratesranging from 27% to 55% ; Asia is fairly constant at80-90% (except for Japan) ; and Africa has the highestilliteracy-rate of all, from 90% to 98% among thecoloured people. As one might expect, the main featuresassociated with a high rate of illiteracy are mountains andother obstacles, poverty, and over-population.

Various attempts have been made by countries allover the world to increase the numbers of those who canread and write. France, for example, uses the Frenchlanguage as a political tool in helping to grant freedom tothe native people she rules. In the Union of South Africa,however, the technically trained coloured youth is up againstthe difficulty that only 1 in 100 stands much chance of

getting a skilled job. The fine plans of the Chinese govern-ment since 1927 to reduce illiteracy have been upset bythe eight years’ war against Japan ; but even so, the

expenditure of some of the district governments on

education has been as much as a third of the total budget.In India the chief physical difficulty is that only 15%of people live in towns or cities, compared with 79% inEngland and 51% in the U.S.A. Lenin’s words applyaptly to India : "An illiterate man is outside politicsand before he can be brought in he must be taught thealphabet. Without this there can be no politics-onlyrumours, gossip, tales, superstitions." Often the Indianasks : " Is it worth while for my children to beeducated ? " and decides in the negative. " Few Indiansthink education good in itself." Perhaps the most interest-ing section of the report is that dealing with the attemptsof the U.S.S.R. to educate its people ; some tribes hadnot yet emerged from primitive devil-worship and thevast mass were illiterate, though at the other extremethere were small groups of highly educated people.Russian is compulsory in all schools, but education iscarried out in ninety different languages throughout theSoviet Union-a remarkable attempt to keep alive thedifferent cultures of a vast land.The report points out that even in illiterate areas

ancient religions such as Islam, Confucianism, andBuddhism have preserved certain forms of education ;but these will not serve for today, despite the dangersof uprooting the old ways of life : history provides manyexamples of civilisations which have snapped from suddenchange in their culture. Writing from the standpoint ofthe anthropologist, Dr. Margaret Mead agrees that suchnativistic movements as the American Indian ghostdance and the revival of Celtic languages may be regardedas expensive drags on the progress of human culture;but she herself seems to disapprove of this view. Onthe major problem of language the report favours

simplification to ease translation from one to another.Sense aids such as films, records, radio, and maps shouldbe used where possible ; and emphasis is laid on offeringnot only the bare bones of literacy in a knowledge ofhow to read ; people should be taught also why theyread, and should be helped in deciding what toread.How far can the West, with its greater power, afford

to influence the Orient in fundamental education ? z?Did Britain keep India from sinking through apathy1. Fundamental Education : Common Ground for All Peoples.

UNESCO. H.M. Stationery Office. 1947. 7s. 6d.

and internecine strife, or will India, with the removalof Britain’s inhibiting influence, raise its standard of

living ? ’1 The report quotes an old African woman assaying : " You Europeans think you have everythingto teach us. If, as you say, we have been eating the wrongfood all this time, cultivating our fields and rearing ourbabies the wrong way-why, we’d all be dead. But yousee we are not."

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CHOLERA

IN India upwards of 200,000 die of cholera each year ;and in China the figure is probably larger. This estimatewas made by Sir John Taylor at last Monday’s meetingof the epidemiology section of the Royal Society ofMedicine. Basically, he said, the problem of cholerais the problem of two endemic areas-Lower Bengaland the Yangtse valley. There may, however, be otherminor areas of endemicity. From India cholera isdisseminated by three principal routes. It may spreadvia Afghanistan to Persia and south-east Russia; butthis route has not beenfollowed for many yearsand it does not appear tobe now a major danger.Secondly, it may spreadvia Iraq and Syria ; and

Iraq has been infected

eight times in the presentcentury. Thirdly, it may CI)spread by the Red Sea to Egypt. The common

Q

source of infection inEgypt used to be the p rannual pilgrimage ; thiswas the cause of the1902 epidemic when

34,000 died. The pil-grimage was again in-fected in 1907, 1908, 1911,and 1912. Since then,however, it has not beeninfected owing to theeffectiveness of quaran-tine measures. Infection Cases and deaths in Egypt from... - , , Sept. 22. Afailing incidence wasis maintained by cases, reported last week (Times, Nov.4).convalescents, and close

contacts ; and steps to prevent spread must be relatedto the infectivity of each of these groups. The incubationperiod may be taken as about five days, so by the searoute a case infected in India will manifest itself before

reaching Suez. Patients excrete the cholera vibriofor about five days, though occasionally excretion maycontinue up to thirteen days ; close household contactsexcrete the organism usually for about five days, butoccasionally up to nine days. Convalescents and contactswill thus be clear by the time that Suez is reached;it is unlikely, moreover, that recent convalescents wouldpass the routine examination at the embarkation point.There remains, however, the risk of the missed case onshipboard. With normal air traffic there is no greatrisk of infection being introduced ; there have been sus-pected but no proved cases. Positive contacts might,however, arrive by air, and the present refugee trafficmay increase the risk. Even so there is little dangerthat infection introduced into this country wouldspread.

’

Sir Leonard Rogers, F.R.S., prophesied that the

Egyptian outbreak would now die down though it mightcome to life again next year. The real danger, he con-cluded, lies in the Punjab epidemic ; for there is graverisk that next year it may spread to Russia.

Public-health measures were discussed by Dr. MelvilleMackenzie, who said that surveillance was to be imposedon air passengers who had spent nights in Egypt. The