Ilegal Propaganda in Schools

MoD accused of propaganda in Iraq worksheets for schools
Guardian, Friday March 14 2008
Polly Curtis, education editor
The Ministry of Defence has been accused of supplying "misleading propaganda" to schools and attempting to recruit pupils into the army. The children's secretary, Ed Balls, has written to officials in the MoD asking them to investigate teachers' claims that their worksheets for 16- to 18-year-olds provide a one-sided view on the war in Iraq. The National Union of Teachers (...) (...) on the war in Iraq. The National Union of Teachers said the MoD was "unethically" targeting recruitment materials at schools in disadvantaged areas. (...)

and what are they teaching them in Vale of Glamorgan schools - Llanwit Major Comp has not replied to any of my lettersin the last month. Estyn said that the school must be contacted.

Is it legal to put just the BENEFITS of the Defence Academy on the curriculum? The article says that they are required by law to give a balanced view which is what we have written to the school and its govenors to ask.

There ahas been no reply from John Smith or the director of Education or the chair of thew education committee!

The Guardian article above ..

One worksheet supplied by the MoD and designed by a private marketing company, Kids Connections, describes the UK force's efforts in Iraq as mainly targeted at "helping the Iraqis to rebuild their country after the conflict and years of neglect".
It describes the work the armed forces have done in security and reconstruction, and notes the 2005 democratic elections. But union officials said it failed to mention the US-led invasion, Iraqi civilian deaths and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
The NUT will debate the issue at its annual conference in Manchester next week. Teachers are regularly sent model lesson plans, worksheets and other teaching materials by government departments, charities and private companies, but these are required by law to give a balanced political view. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in January highlighted websites set up by the MoD targeted at 12- to 17-year-olds, but noted that some recruitment tactics targeted children as young as seven. "Children are introduced to the potential benefits of a forces career, but not to its risks," the report said.

Schools receive 'pro-war propaganda' teaching materials from MoD Daily Mail, UK The Ministry of Defence has been accused of sending out pro-war "propaganda" to schools. Britian's biggest teachers' union has said the MoD asked schools to ...Row as teachers call for ban on army 'pro-war propaganda ... This is London Pupils 'given biased Iraq view' BBC News Teachers' concerns over Iraq are valid Independent The Observerall 10 news articles »

Teachers' concerns over Iraq are valid
By Richard Garner
The National Union of Teachers is justified in expressing concern over the materials included in the lesson plan commissioned by the Ministry of Defence for teaching about the Iraq war. As Steve Sinnott, its general secretary, says, it makes no mention of civilian casualties or the fact that the UN failed to sanction the invasion. A High Court judge ruled that Al Gore's Oscar-winng film, An Inconvenient Truth, could not be shown in schools without teachers providing "balance" and correcting inaccuracies in it. The same should be the case for the MoD lesson plan.
Having said that, the debate at the NUT conference will be interested. The motion attacking the lesson calls for support for opposition to military involvement in sxchools. Mr Sinnott wants that support limited to cases where the military is providing biased information to schools. He concedes that - if the produce quality material - there is no reason why schoolshould not use it.

ESTYN Reply to complaint

Alexandra.Doel@estyn.gsi.gov.uk Chief-Inspector@estyn.gsi.gov.uk

Thank you for your email to the Chief Inspector dated 8 February 2008 which was passed to me for attention. He has asked me to reply on his behalf.
Matters relating to the curriculum of a particular school should be directed in the first instance to the school and its governing body. If the issue is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you may subsequently raise it with the local authority and ultimately take it to the Welsh Assembly Government if necessary.

I am sure that you will understand that we cannot comment on individual cases ourselves.
Yours sincerely,

Meilyr Rowlands
Managing HMI
Secondary education and 14-19 area provision

NUT WAR MOTION

I spoke the NUT Wales 02920 491818 and Gleshi Jones has promised to get the press officer to get back to me.

War MOTION 55
http://www.teachers.org.uk/resources/pdf/3715_motions_08.pdf

Conference reaffirms existing Union policies which:
1. Call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
2. Agree to participate in protests should military action be taken against Iran by US and/or UK forces.

Conference notes with particular concern the huge refugee crisis within and beyond Iraq’s borders, one consequence of which is the impossibility of education for most learners of all ages.
Further, Conference also notes that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the banishment of 750,000 Palestinians from their homelands. This unresolved injustice entrenches many opponents of the world’s most militarised states in a conviction that real peace, democracy and equality are not what those powers aspire to in these more recent conflicts. Conference congratulates those members that have established sustainable twinning arrangements with schools in Palestine, and encourages more to do likewise.
Conference further notes two respects in which schools are being asked to play a partisan role in war.

The first is via the development of Key Stage 4 classroom teaching materials, produced by Kids Connections, a children's marketing agency, working for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and published at; www.defencedynamics.mod.com

In the particular section for English ‘Writing To Argue’ information is presented largely from the MOD’s point of view. (For example there are no figures for the dead, wounded, homeless or refugees.) This would impinge on many schools’ commitment to peace and equality contained in their mission statements, and also breach the 1996 Education Act (Section 56 paras 406 and 407), unless teachers contribute additional materials to achieve the balanced views of such topics required by law.

The second is via the exploitation of schools for recruitment by the armed forces. Precisely because unpopular recent wars have contributed to a decline in volunteers all branches of the military are upgrading their methods of recruitment. Again, military intervention in schools customarily presents a partisan view of war, largely by ignoring its fatal realities in favour of promises of travel, skill training and further or higher education course sponsorships otherwise often unavailable to young people, especially in areas of high unemployment.
Conference believes that teachers and schools should not be conduits for either the dissemination of MoD propaganda or the recruitment of military personnel.
Conference therefore:
(i) Congratulates colleagues in the Educational Institute of Scotland for their decision in 2007 to oppose military recruitment in Scottish schools;
(ii) Agrees to actively oppose military recruitment activities in schools across England and Wales.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

a. By all means support Union members who face victimisation or other professional
difficulties in the course of implementing this policy of opposition to military recruitment in schools;
b. Support those students and parents who may also campaign against military recruitment in schools, locally and nationally;
c. Co-sponsor with the Stop the War Coalition and its other affiliated trade unions, mindful of existing legal guidelines, curriculum learning materials on peace and militarisation. In addition, the Union agrees to purchase and circulate the most recent education pack produced by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which promotes an understanding of the history of this most protracted dispute in the Middle East.

Lambeth, Croydon, East London, Cambridgeshire, Islington, Southwark, Redbridge