I was recently looking after my children's step brother who is fifteen and at secondary school. During this time he went on an away day with the army and had lots of 'fun'. They were taken on the assault courses,played football and were given glossy brochures about the army.Afterwards I was able to talk to him about the fact that there isn't a lot of 'fun' for most lower level soldiers and that there would be a risk of not coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan. I was relieved that he didn't see this as a way out of his current difficulties in the school environment but I'm sure there are young people who have disengaged from school and who have difficult home lives who will. I remember seeing a programme recently about American recruiters doing outreach work in disadvantaged communities picking off young men in the community in a very exploitative way. They don't need to do that here if they have an open invitation into schools.

Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Serdar M. Degirmencioglu
Sent: 01 April 2008 07:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: UK: Teachers attack army over "school recruitment"

UK: Teachers attack army over "school recruitment"

[LONDON, 25 March 2008] - Teachers accused the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday of "exploiting" schools to find new recruits after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made it harder to sign up volunteers.

Members of the National Union of Teachers said military visitors to schools pushed a partisan view of becoming a soldier which promotes the career prospects, training and travel, while downplaying the "fatal realities".

In a motion put forward at the union's annual conference in Manchester, they said: "Schools should not be conduits for either the dissemination of MoD propaganda or the recruitment of military personnel."

South London teacher Catherine Brennan said information about the military given to pupils was one-sided.

"They shouldn't come into schools and present a glamorised, untruthful account of what's it's like in the military," she told BBC radio.

"There's a clear intention to get more people joining the army at a time when it has got trouble with its recruitment because they're fighting a deeply unpopular war in Iraq.

"At 16, people are too young to drink, they're too young to drive, they're too young to vote and we think they are also too young to be joining the armed forces."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it would issue a response to the teachers' motion later on Tuesday. It has previously said it is invited into around 1,000 schools a year and goes to inform rather than recruit.

A leaked report published in the Sunday Telegraph last November said the MoD faced a "continuing difficult environment" for recruitment.

It highlighted concerns over poor housing, bad food and cancelled leave.

[Source: Reuters]

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