According to research carried out by groups monitoring British military activity, armed forces’ visits to schools in Wales are acting as a “fig-leaf” for military recruitment.
This raises questions around the armed forces’ repeated claims that they do not use schools for recruitment purposes.
The research for the report took two years to compile, and was carried out by researchers from Cymdeithas y Cymod, ForcesWatch and the Peace Pledge Union, who collected and analysed data regarding military visits to Welsh schools.
Their findings suggested that the way in which the armed forces are portrayed in schools is simplistic and misleading, and is stripped of a vital political and ethical context. Not only this, but often targeted by the military are the poorest of young people, who perhaps feel that other routes – such as apprenticeships or university – are closed off to them.
The report also highlights that school pupils are exposed to a lack of criticism of the armed forces, meaning they’re growing up with a view of the military that is shrouded in patriotism and stoicism. Even though the percentage of young people who actually end up as armed forces recruits is relatively small, a larger percentage of students are “recruited” to pro-military attitudes, the report suggests.
“School students rarely hear from voices who are critical of the military when the forces are invited into schools,” Symon Hill of the Peace Pledge Union said. “Post-COVID, we should be raising our ambition by offering young people skills to aid Wales’ green recovery, rather than pushing them towards dangerous careers which will damage their mental wellbeing.”
The report also points to the fact that the recruitment of young people into the armed forces is made worse because UK armed forces are able to recruit from the age of 16 – which is lower than any other country in Europe.
However, the organisations point the finger not only at the armed forces but at a lack of action on behalf of the Welsh Government, who have failed to address the issue even after a 2015 inquiry into military school visits was issued by the Petitions Committee of the (then) National Assembly for Wales.
“The Welsh Government were told in 2015 to ensure that a diverse range of employers visit schools to inform pupils about career opportunities,” said Emma Sangster of ForcesWatch. “They have ignored that recommendation, and as a result the armed forces have been given carte blanche to continue to carry out recruitment activities in schools, contrary to Wales’ children’s rights agenda.”
The three organisations have launched their report ahead of the Senedd elections on 6 May, and are urging politicians across all of Wales’ parties to commit themselves to addressing military school visits.
In its conclusions, the report stresses that if the Welsh Government is fully committed to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it must not only actively seek to increase the age of recruitment into the armed forces, but must also do everything in its power to take action to limit unregulated access to young people for recruitment activities.
The authors of the report are calling upon the Welsh Government to use the presented evidence to guide a formal review into military activities in Welsh schools.
They also recommend that the Welsh Government issue guidance to headteachers and careers teachers concerning the armed forces in schools, and the need for young people to be encouraged to have an open-minded approach to information on military careers and to develop enquiring attitudes when considering the role of the armed forces.
“There is a unique opportunity for the next Welsh Government to draw a line in the sand about Wales’ status as a peace-loving nation, and one which will not uncritically allow its children to be the target of military recruitment,” said Rhun Dafydd of Cymdeithas y Cymod.
The research for the report was carried out despite armed forces’ refusal to publish important statistics and details regarding their activities in schools. The report’s authors are now calling for the armed forces to be held to account for this, and are advocating for the public availability of such information to be made a legal requirement.
The human cost of war and British military activity was brought into sharp relief this week. The report comes as the British government announces that is to begin withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan as of next month, after the US made a similar move. The countries have been involved militarily in Afghanistan as leading parts of a NATO coalition since 2001. But the 20 year war is widely seen as a total disaster on all fronts.
According to Brown University in the US, around 157,000 people have been killed in the war since 2001. More than 43,000 of those killed have been civilians. In addition, 456 British troops have been killed in that period. Afghanistan is in a more perilous place than it was when the war began, with raging sectarian violence and regular bomb attacks.
