The Army offer ‘Soldiers to Schools’ as First World War Centenary ‘support’

In addition to placing a soldier on each school coach visiting the First World War battlefields (as part of the government’s flagship  Centenary initiative to have at least two students from every school in the country visit them), the Army have launched their own First World War teaching resources for schools, and are offering to send soldiers to schools to ‘support teaching activities’.

Their resources for schools overlook the recruitment and propaganda that the military carried out in schools during the war. They also overlook the fact that the UK had around ¼ million boy soldiers,  roughly 120,000 of who were killed or injured.

The Army deny that their ‘Soldiers to Schools’ scheme is recruitment, despite it having a major focus on the Army today, and despite the well-documented strong recruitment agenda behind their schools engagement in general.

See more: WWI commemorations, military in schools/colleges, education