EDUCATION has come to dominate political debate in Scotland in recent months. Closing the attainment gap between school pupils in the most affluent and deprived areas has become the First Minister’s first priority, she tells us.
It has also become an urgent issue for the opposition parties, who obviously scent a chance to attack the government’s record, but also, to be fair, want standards to rise. Politicians are parents too, after all, and who would not want children to thrive in school?
So the parties appear to agree that improving the academic performance of children from disadvantaged backgrounds matters, because it has a critical lifelong impact. But not everyone sees schools in areas of “high deprivation” in the same light.
For the armed forces, always hungry for new recruits, opportunity beckons. To help them fill their ranks, George Osborne last year announced a £50m expansion of the Combined Cadet Forces programme which is already part of some English state schools. The Chancellor said schools in “less affluent” areas would be prioritised.
The goal is to have 500 cadet units inside schools across the UK by 2020 to give teenagers a taste of military discipline and self-reliance. To help hit that target, the MoD wants to set up Scotland’s first in-school cadet units – currently all cadet units here are community-based, though they liaise with schools.
Publicly, this is about character building and life opportunities, not recruitment. Conveniently, the military defines recruitment as literally signing on the dotted line. But, to coin a phrase, recruitment is a process not an event.
Can anyone seriously doubt that cadet units in schools are part of a larger effort to turn children toward military service? Adverts for travel and adventure, missing the horror of war?
We cannot be too squeamish about this as a society. Describing the Tory initiative as an attempt to recruit ‘cannon fodder’ from among the poorest children is strong language - but the point is valid.
If we want an army, navy and air force to protect us, then recruitment drives naturally follow and young men and women will always be the bulk of recruits. But recruitment should not mean dazzling impressionable children or buying up the poor - for a role which carries the risk of dying in combat.
The lazy, heartless assumption that pupils in run-down areas will be grateful of a career in uniform because that’s as good as they’ll get is unacceptable. School should be about helping children disadvantaged by their backgrounds – and not shunting them into a potentially lethal career before they are able to make an informed choice.
The sound of boots gathering on a playground should mean football, not cannon fodder.
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