In June, members of Denbighshire council’s committee on religious education discussed a Denbighshire Quaker charter calling for a stop to armed forces recruitment in schools.
Chair Dominic Oakes said: ‘If a child wants to go to a cadet event and enjoys it, then our responsibility through their schooling is that they at least come across ideas of the problems with the fact that we have cadets and arms and wars.’
It was agreed to present something to the council in the future.
Councillor Mabon ap Gwynfor welcomed this: ‘We know that the UK is an outlier internationally as far as recruiting children and young people is concerned and targeting the most deprived communities.’
Peace education programmes for schools are already offered across Wales, as we’ve previously reported (PN 2628–2629), including the ‘Peaceful Schools’ Quaker initiative.
Comments from the public on a North Wales News story indicated a potentially rocky road for the proposal, including: ‘I wonder if the Quakers will defend said children when an enemy comes a calling, or will they just turn the other cheek & carry on milling their oats?? NO fundamentalist from ANY religion should have a Say how Schools are run in this Country’.