Huge rise in visits by armed forces sparks anger
MSP clashes with MoD over recruiting in schools
Published:
A MSP has clashed with the Army in Scotland over claims it is ignoring pleas not to use schools in deprived areas as fertile recruitment grounds.
The SNP’s Christine Grahame is furious that the number of school visits being made by armed forces representatives in Scotland has increased by 81% in three years.
Figures released by the Ministry of Defence show that visits by armed forces recruitment officers for the Army, RAF and the Royal Navy increased by 546 in 2005 to 989 by 2007.
Visits by Army recruiters, increased by a staggering 186% from 176 in 2005 to 504 last year.
RAF visits, by comparison, showed only a modest 5.8% increase over the three years to December 2007.
The news comes just 12 months after the Educational Institute for Scotland called for a ban on such contacts with schools, particularly ones in deprived areas where youngsters have little career prospects.
Last month teaching unions in England and Wales made a similar call to halt recruiting in schools and colleges.
South of Scotland MSP Ms Grahame, who has been campaigning for an end to the practice for years, said schools were “wholly inappropriate environments” in which to recruit impressionable young people.
She claimed pupils were reeled in with notions of foreign travel and adventure — an image of life in the armed forces that “bears little resemblance to the reality”.
A spokesman for the Army in Scotland last night said that it had been invited by head teachers to visit pupils in 250 schools, in deprived and affluent areas, in Scotland last year.
He added: “The Army is no different than any other organisation, offering a career to school-leavers.
“To exclude it or the other armed forces from doing so would be direct discrimination, a restriction of choice, and prevent young people from joining an honourable and proud British profession.”
Ms Grahame said: “Are they seriously trying to suggest that in the context of the deeply unpopular war in Iraq and recent votes by the main teaching unions in the UK that head teachers have somehow decided to extend invites to the Army at a rate of almost 200% in the past three years?
The Army spokesman said: “To suggest that the Army should not visit schools because soldiers can die and it can be dangerous work, would therefore also exclude many other organisations such as the police, fire service, airlines, oil industry and so on.
“The Army never deceives the public or hides the fact that a career as a soldier can be dangerous.”
