Brown backs army cadet corps plan for schools

10/01/2012

The Guardian

Controversial plans for pupils in comprehensive schools to sign up for military drills and weapons training are being backed by Gordon Brown in an attempt to improve the relationship between the public and the armed forces.

A major review of the military’s role in British society says that encouraging more state secondary school pupils to join the cadet corps would improve discipline among teenagers while helping to improve the public perception of the army, navy and air force.

However, anti-gun campaigners say that teaching teenagers to shoot would exacerbate the growing problem of gun crime among youngsters.

The government-commissioned review of civil and military relations, led by Quentin Davies, the Labour MP, was ‘alarmed’ at the number of schoolchildren who had no idea of military life. Davies wants secondary school pupils to receive basic military training as a means of developing greater affiliation with the armed forces.

See more: cadets, military ethos

Training school pupils for the military and surveillance?

Is pushing the cadets really in pupils’ best interests?

Cadet units are not a social panacea but a recruitment tool. Our article, published in Schools Week, critiques the social impact report being used by the MoD to validate the expansion of cadets in state schools.

The Ministry of Defence has no place in our schools

Children don’t need militarism. They need a decent learning environment, writes Rhianna Louise. Our piece in The Morning Star about the latest announcement of more cadet units in schools and the problematic social impact report that has been published to support this.