story-type: ForcesWatch comment

Why are education projects run by ex-services being prioritised?

On 15 November 2013, the Department for Education announced “£4.8 million to projects led by ex-armed forces personnel to tackle underachievement by disengaged pupils“.

ForcesWatch has a number of concerns about the military-led ‘alternative provision’ being developed in schools: who benefits? the armed forces certainly will; military-led ‘alternative provision’ targets young people seen to be ‘failing’ – precisely those who need more options and, if channelled into the forces, are most at risk in warfare; the policy is based on limited evidence and ideological assumptions; will there be space for ethical issues around conflict to be addressed?

The projects that have received extra funding are for pupils who are ‘disengaged/at risk of becoming disengaged’, and are one of a number of schemes in the Department for Education’s Military Ethos in Schools in England programme. Other schemes include fast-tracking ex-forces (including non-graduates) into the teaching profession under the Troops to Teachers programme, the expansion of the Combined Cadet Force units in state schools, and the encouragement of the development of military academies and free schools sponsored by part of the military.

Who benefits?

One of the background documents used to develop the ‘military ethos’ policy identifies three main benefits of introducing more military-led provision in schools: ex-forces would benefit from more employment opportunities, the reserve forces would benefit from more recruits and young people would benefit as the provision would ‘generate hope and purpose’ and keep them out of trouble.… Read more

Raising the age of recruitment: an open letter and a cautious welcome of the MoD review

ForcesWatch are among 24 signatories of an open letter to Mark Francois MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces which calls for an end to the recruitment of under-18s. The signatories include the Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Unitarian Church and Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Quaker groups and Child Soldiers International. The letter notes that as the centenary of the outbreak of World War One approaches, the recruitment and deployment age of British soldiers is lower now than it was a century ago. The signatories call on the Ministry to raise the recruitment age to 18 as a “fitting memorial” to the thousands of young soldiers killed in World War One.

ForcesWatch welcomes the statement by the Government that it “agrees that the Armed Forces should undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the recruitment of U18s and work has been set in hand with the Army to look at this.” This review was announced in the Government’s response to the Defence committee report The Armed Forces Covenant in Action? Part 4: Education of Service Personnel, published on 23 October 2013. The Defence Select Committee had asked the Department why the Army was “so dependent on recruiting personnel under the age of 18 years compared with the other two Services”.… Read more

The Poppy

A version of this article was published by The Friend, 7 November 2013

When I was about seven, my dad took me to the local Remembrance Day memorial. Neatly turned-out elderly men were stood in equally neat rows while The Last Post was played. I wondered why everyone looked so sad. Dad said it was because their friends had been killed in the war; this day was to remember them. I wore a poppy then and I am glad that I did.

This week, other elderly men are standing in railway stations holding out boxes of poppies for passers-by. The poppy still means something to them and because of that, it matters to me as well, but its deeper significance of lament, remembrance, and the commitment called ‘never again’, is being lost. I think it is being killed off.

The nation’s official custodian of remembrance is the British Legion, which is now a very large, corporate-style charity. The poppy appeal is its main source of income. This year, girl band The Saturdays launched the appeal at a glitzy concert with their song Notorious: ‘I’ve been a bad girl / I’m a bad girl / I’m notorious’. A cloud of poppies fell from the ceiling while the crowd cheered.… Read more

The inescapable psychological cost of conflict

A study published in the Lancet called Violent offending by UK military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan has found that men in the UK armed forces are more likely to have been convicted of violent offences than their civilian peers. The study shows a strong link with age – that fighting and being traumatised by it tends to make those in younger age groups more likely to be violent afterwards.

The study of almost 14,000 servicemen who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan looked at the link between their criminal records and military service. It found that 20% of young males under 30 had a conviction for violent offences compared to 6.7% in the general population. The incidence decreases for older age groups and for higher ranks. Those who had taken part in combat were more than 50% more likely to be involved in post-service violent episodes. The incidence increased with multiple combat occurrences and most significantly, violent behaviour prior to signing up. Alcohol misuse, PTSD and high levels of self-reported aggressive behaviour are all strong indicators of post-service violence.

“Our study, which used official criminal records, found that violent offending was most common among young men from the lower ranks of the Army and was strongly associated with a history of violent offending before joining the military.… Read more

Unpacking ‘recruitment’: what does the MoD mean when it says the armed forces do not run recruitment activities in schools?

Our education campaigner looks at the MoD’s assertion that the armed forces do not go into schools for recruitment purposes. This is based on a definition of ‘recruitment’ that limits it to ‘signing up’ there and then. We argue that the armed forces are indeed recruiting in schools and that ‘recruitment’ is a broader activity that involves interesting young people in the idea of enlisting by engaging in the range of activities from careers talks to visits to bases.

[T]he Armed Forces as a whole never visit schools for recruitment purposes and would only ever visit a school after being invited by a teacher to support school activities.
Response to FOI (accessed 05/02/2013)

This statement reflects the standard response by the Armed Forces to the work undertaken by ForcesWatch challenging whether the presence of the military is appropriate within the education system. Having met with this response in private communication, panel discussions and media outlets, ForcesWatch decided to lodge a complaint with the MoD. We believe these statements are, at best, a misrepresentation of military-led activities in schools; and at worst, a deliberate attempt to mislead the public over these activities. All the statements contain the same two claims that, firstly, that they do not visit for recruitment purposes; secondly, that they visit only upon invitation from a member of staff.… Read more

Recently… on ‘moral injury’ and armed forces suicides in the US and UK

2012 was the the first year ‘in at least a generation’ in which a greater number of currently-serving US Army soldiers killed themselves (177) than were killed in active duty (176). The Guardian’s analysis shows that this is partly because US deaths in military action went down during 2012 but also partly because the suicide rate has risen.

If suicides in the other services (Navy 60, Marines 48, Air Force 59) are added, the totals become 349 and 295 respectively.

Army vice chief of staff General Lloyd J. Austin III said in August 2012 that, “Suicide is the toughest enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the Army”.

Yet the number of US military veterans who killed themselves 2012 is 6,500 – ‘roughly equivalent to one every 80 minutes’. The reasons are complex with multiple deployments becoming evident as a factor. The Guardian quotes that, “William Nash, a retired Navy psychiatrist…. and colleagues in military psychiatry have developed the concept of ‘moral injury’ to help understand the current wave of self-harm. He defines that as ‘damage to your deeply held beliefs about right and wrong. It might be caused by something that you do or fail to do, or by something that is done to you – but either way it breaks that sense of moral certainty.’… Read more

The suffering of veterans

A play about and starring injured veterans, and recent government data and policies, highlights their suffering.

A DVD of the first performance of The Two Worlds of Charlie F, a remarkable play about the experience of UK military personnel injured (mostly) in Afghanistan (mentioned here), was released recently. It stars the veterans whose stories that the script, written by Owen Shears, was based on. Directed by Stephen Rayne, the company – Bravo 22 – first performed The Two Worlds of Charlie F at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in January 2012. It then went on tour, showing in Birmingham, Cardiff, and Edinburgh (where it won Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award), before returning to London to finish in September. The play was initiated by the Haymarket’s charity Masterclass, and received funding from The British Legion. Visiting Personnel Recovery Units and rehabilitation centres, Shears and Rayne learnt that 22% of UK combatants in Afghanistan have been injured. The majority of the cast are injured veterans, and all but one were still serving as of January 2012. None of them had ever acted before, although the protagonist, ‘Charlie’, a Canadian Royal Marine, had studied dance at university in the US. They are mostly men.… Read more

We shall reach them in the classrooms: promoting a ‘military ethos’ in schools

Fostering a ‘military ethos’ in schools: what’s going on.

Earlier this month the Department for Education published a statement on their website outlining their ambition to promote a military ethos in schools across the country. They state that: “We associate the military with many positive values: loyalty, resilience, courage and teamwork, to name but a few. We recognise that these core values can have a positive impact on pupils”. Through developing projects such as Troops to Teachers and expanding schemes such as the cadets and other alternative military provision in schools (such as Challenger Troop), the government is now actively encouraging schools, especially newer Academies and Free Schools, which tend to exist in more disadvantaged areas, to foster a military ethos.

This official announcement is a major step in a growing trend towards the militarisation of England’s schools; coming after a series of announcements dating back to 2010 and including projects such as Troops to Teachers, military academies, a cadet option within the proposed National Citizen Service and most recently an £11million scheme to create 100 new cadet units in state schools by 2015. It marks the adoption of a ‘military ethos’ as a key part of this government’s education policy; yet this announcement, tucked away and hard to find on the website, has attracted almost no attention.… Read more

Militarising Education

This article was originally published on openDemocracy

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.

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.

According to an unpublished 2007 report by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the UK military already has substantial involvement in education, visiting thousands of schools and colleges each year and having contact with a minimum of around 900,000 children aged 8 -18. Figures obtained link under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that in many areas most secondary level state schools and colleges are being visited, often numerous times. The three aims of this involvement were outlined in the Youth Engagement Review 2011: recruitment, to raise awareness of the armed forces “in order to ensure the continued support of the population” and to encourage personal and social development. The first two are Defence outcomes, the third chimes neatly with the Government’s agenda in other areas in which military input into young people’s lives is being seen as a solution to wider issues of social dysfunction.… Read more

“It’s not a game”

Each of the episodes from both series of Our War focuses on a different platoon or company, with varying missions during their tours in Helmand Province (which dated from between 2006 and 2012). Common themes to each of them include the youth of those involved, and the gravity of what is being asked of them.

The second series of the compelling Our War, on British Army officers’ and soldiers’ experiences of the war in Afghanistan, first shown on BBC Three between August and September, was repeated on BBC One last month. Like the Bafta-winning Series 1, first broadcast in June 2011, the three episodes consist of footage taken by troops of their patrols and time at their compounds, interspersed with interviews back in the UK with some of them and their relatives.

These soldiers and officers are almost all very young men, the youngest eighteen and twenty-three respectively. One of the platoons is nicknamed ‘Kindergarten’; another has an average age of twenty-one. Most of the soldiers in the first episode of series 1 (1.1) were still at school in 2001 when the Twin Towers were hit and the war started. Among the Welsh Guards in 2.3, one joined because he loved guns, and one joined because where he was from you either worked “in a chicken factory or go on the dole”.… Read more