Film launch at Friends House
'Engage: the military and young people' to be launched at Friends House
A new film that highlights a growing concern among young people about the promotion of military activities in schools is to be launched at Friends House on the evening of 26 June. Engage: the military and young people explores the opinions of British teenagers on the military’s ‘youth engagement’ activities, particularly the cadets, and the government’s ‘Military Ethos in Schools’ policy.
On 18 June the Department for Education announced that it would give £1 million towards the expansion of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) in state schools. It is part of the Department for Education’s ‘Military Ethos in Schools’ programme. Almost £11 million has already been allocated to establish one hundred new CCF units by 2015 and nearly £5 million for military-led activities for ‘disengaged pupils’.
Emma Sangster, of ForcesWatch, said: ‘A great deal of money is being spent promoting the military in schools when other education and youth resources are being cut.’
She added: ‘As the cadets are clearly a recruitment tool, we do not believe that they should be promoted in schools.’
The Ministry of Defence and Cadet Forces Associations deny there is a recruitment link.
Engage: the military and young people was made by teenage journalists from the London-based charity Headliners and commissioned by ForcesWatch.
Speakers at the launch include young people from Headliners and the Woodcraft Folk, and Ben Griffin, ex-soldier and founder of Veterans for Peace UK.
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