This from a US reporter in Afghanistan:
The Afghan forces have a lot of hurdles to overcome in the next two years. [There] is still a very high illiteracy rate. The Americans are trying to train the Afghans up to, for the soldiers, to a first-grade level, and the officers, a third-grade level. One officer told me that a lot of these soldiers cannot only not read or write but many can't even count, and the US tries to get around this in some novel ways. I'll give you a good example. They actually draw a rectangle in the dirt for [a commander] who can't tell how many soldiers he has, or should have, and the Americans tell him that, listen, if the soldiers standing at attention fill this rectangle in the dirt, [he] would now have a full complement of soldiers.
— Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, speaking from Kandahar
All Things Considered for 20120502, "What The Afghanistan Deal Means For U.S. Troops". Online at http://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/151877348/what-the-afghanistan-deal-means-for-u-s-troops, time 2:00–47 , accessed 20120502.