British Army targets primary schools for new recruits

British Army targets primary schools for new recruits

The British Army has dramatically increased recruitment visits to Scottish schools in a drive to encourage pupils to sign up to a career in the armed forces. But teachers' leaders voiced alarm that recruiting officers had included primary schools in what has been a ten-fold increase in visits to classrooms in the last three years.

They said it was "completely wrong" that the army was targeting schools for new recruits, while opposition politicians called for a ban on such visits.

Figures released by the army in Scotland under Freedom of Information legislation revealed that regimental recruiting teams made 124 presentations in schools in 2005-06, compared with only 12 in 2003-04. The vast majority were to secondary schools but four primaries have been visited by the army in the last three years, in Fife, Edinburgh and Falkirk.

Anger over growth of recruiting visits to schools (The Scotsman, 17 May 2006)