Millitary recruitment in Scottish FE Colleges

To:  Scottish Parliament

Hello,











Following last week’s visit to the college from the Armed Forces, I would be very grateful if you could take the time to read the following email and to consider signing your name to the petition attached. Thank you.







I am very concerned at the drive by the military to attempt to use schools and FE colleges as recruiting grounds for the armed services. Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, has already voted by a clear majority to call for a ban on the armed forces targeting recruitment campaigns at schools and colleges. I believe that the military are tackling a shortage of recruits by deliberately targeting impressionable teenagers in deprived areas.



The number of regimental recruitment team visits to schools in



Scotland rose from 14 in 2003-04 to 153 by March 2006. There is evidence to show that the rise in army recruitment in schools reflects the growing desperation of Army chiefs who are unable to maintain recruitment numbers through conventional methods and are now targeting schools and colleges in deprived areas of Scotland. I have been in contact with MSP Christine Grahame who said that army recruitment in schools has increased by almost 1000% in three years and that Govan High School for example has had 14 visits in the last two years alone, equivalent to the total number of visits to Scottish schools by the Army in the financial year 2003/04 at the start of the Iraq war.



The Army are clearly under pressure in terms of resources and



recruitment but the answer does not lie in recruiting school and college pupils from Scotland's most deprived communities. If pupils want to join the Army then there are numerous recruitment centres around Scotland which they can choose to visit. But what these figures show is a clear and deliberate attempt to exploit youngsters living in deprived communities and all public bodies have a moral duty to ensure that this cynical tactic is stopped.







Thank you very much

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Millitary recruitment in Scottish FE Colleges Petition to Scottish Parliament was created by and written by Louise Bradley (bradley.1981@googlemail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.