Independent.co.uk
Use the force: Why ministers want all pupils to learn to fight

Next week a government report will recommend more cadet forces in state schools, but not everyone is at ease with the idea

By Andy Sharman

Thursday, 15 May 2008

It is said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. But could the wars of the future be won in less salubrious surroundings – a Salford community college? A secondary modern in Kent? A city academy? If ministers have their way, the cadet corps could soon become a big part of state school tradition.

Next Monday, a review commissioned by the Government and led by the Labour MP, Quentin Davies, will propose the setting up of combined cadet forces in maintained schools. "Cadet forces are an undervalued and great national asset," he says.

There are 130,000 children in cadet forces around the country – 42,000 in school cadet corps, the remainder in community forces – but Davies thinks that there ought to be many more. In particular, he wants to redress the imbalance of having 200 independent school CCFs and only 60 state school corps: private schools swallowing the lion's share of the £80m Ministry of Defence cadet corps budget.

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