The armed forces engage with schools and colleges in a wide variety of ways, from providing lesson plans and teaching resources, to presentation teams in assemblies, careers talks, away days, Cadet forces, etc.
For the armed forces, the primary purpose of providing resources and activities for schools and colleges is not to benefit the school.
A report published by the Ministry of Defence in 2007, called ‘Engagement with UK Schools’, stated that:
The incursion of the military into the British education system will mean that alternatives to war and peaceful ways of resolving conflict will be more difficult for young people to explore. In the long term we will all pay a heavy price, says Emma Sangster.
The UK government is on a drive to integrate 'military ethos and skills' into the structure of education, echoing developments in the US and founded on an ideology that says that everything military is good.
WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.