ARMY visits to Welsh schools are acting as a “fig leaf” for military recruitment, with disadvantaged students particularly targeted, a new report claims. 

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said its research contradicts claims by the forces that they do not recruit in schools. 

The British Army offers free visits to schools across the country. 

During these visits, forces are portrayed in “misleading and simplistic ways” with alternative views left out, the report suggests.

Misleading messages are “frequently aimed at the poorest and most disadvantaged young people,” it adds. 

Concerns have been repeatedly raised about the army’s activities in schools.  

In 2015, a cross-party committee called for “continuing vigilance” to ensure visits did not become a “naked recruitment vehicle,” in a report launched in response to a petition calling on the military to stop recruiting in schools.

The report listed a number of recommendations for the Welsh government on the issue. 

But the PPU, which co-published the report with Force Watch and Welsh peace advocacy group Cymdeithas y Cymod on Wednesday, claimed ministers in the Senedd have made “no real progress” in carrying out the committee’s recommendations. 

Emma Sangster of ForcesWatch said ministers had ignored proposals to ensure a diverse range of employers visit students, thus giving the army “carte blanche to continue to carry out recruitment activities in schools, contrary to Wales’s children’s rights agenda.”

The groups are calling on the Welsh government to launch a formal review into military activities in schools.

PPU’s Symon Hill said: “Post-Covid, we should be raising our ambition by offering young people skills to aid Wales’ green recovery, rather than pushing them towards dangerous careers which will damage their mental wellbeing.”

An army spokesperson said: “The army does not recruit in schools and only conducts visits when invited as part of an outreach programme.”