Military recruits: How MoD could be targeting your children

Armed forces personnel have visited primary schools to show pupils how to use guns.

The scale of armed forces visits to schools – including primaries – in Scotland can now be revealed by STV News, however, as well as evidence the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is deliberately pinpointing poorer areas.

A total of 927 visits to schools, colleges and universities were made in 2016/17, the largest number of which were in Glasgow, Aberdeenshire and Fife.

Scottish Government agency Education Scotland confirmed the MoD had asked for statistics on the deprivation rates in schools in 2015.

Eileen Prior from the Scottish Parent Teacher Council said parents were worried about the armed forces visiting their children at school.

She said: “I think there would be a lot of concern among parents that this is a recruitment drive.

“Parents are generally concerned about the armed forces going into schools, whether it be primary or secondary, and particularly in more deprived areas where perhaps the armed forces might be seen as one of the few routes to a career.”

Of the country’s 361 state secondary schools, 68% (244) were visited by a branch of the armed forces during the period.

At least eight visits were made to primary schools.

In January, a group of Royal Marines visited a primary school in Argyll and Bute with unloaded weapons.

See more: military in schools/colleges, ForcesWatch, Scotland, Scottish Parliament