Education Secretary Michael Gove revealed to the Sunday Express this weekend that he wants to introduce military cadet units to all secondary schools in Britain.
The CCF, or Combined Cadet Force, is currently established in over 200 independent schools and about 60 state schools in the UK. Made up of 13 – 18 year olds, the force trains youths in drill (military marching) and the use of firearms.
The education secretary was inspired to begin the process of bringing the CCF to schools after meeting a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, who convinced him of the force’s positive impact. “I met this amazing guy, a 17-year-old, an Afro-Caribbean lad, who joined the cadet force and told me how it had transformed his life,” Gove told the Sunday Express. “He was the perfect advertisement for what it can do.”
The main aims behind the proposal, according to Gove, are to instil discipline and “patriotism” in unruly pupils, in light of statistics that show that more than 300,000 students are suspended from schools for violent behaviour every year.
This idea has been tried before. In 2008, Gordon Brown and Ed Balls both backed government proposals to bring the CCF into schools. Back then, though, the National Union of Teachers opposed the plans, pointing to research from the Rowntree Foundation that suggested that the Ministry of Defence, by focusing on schools in disadvantaged areas, were targeting vulnerable pupils without providing proper explanation of the ricks of a career in the army. Anti-gun campaigners were also critical, arguing that training young people in the use of firearms could only make the problem of gun crime in certain areas even worse.
Jedine Powell, 19, told Live “I don’t think it’s right, because they’re so young. It’s going to cause palaver on the streets if anything.” However, others voiced their approval of the idea. “It would be good because there’s not a lot of extra-curricular classes in our school,” said Zayna, 13, “so if we had the cadets it could give you another option for your career”. Shane, 26, agreed “if young boys are interested in guns, at least they’d be doing it in a safe way.”
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