A Kent MP has attacked a bid by the National Union of Teachers to ban the army from visiting schools.

Faversham and Mid Kent MP Hugh Robertson said: "In an era when increasingly few people understand the services, it is vital that soldiers are allowed to tell young people about the important job they carry out on our behalf."

The union is opposing propaganda-driven recruiting drives. It backed a motion at its annual conference this week "to support teachers and schools in opposing Ministry of Defence recruitment activities that is based upon misleading propaganda".

Not all teachers agreed with the NUT stance. John Walder, secretary of the Kent division, also supports the work of the Armed Forces and says throughout his 40 year teaching career he has never seen pupils being pressured to join the army.

"I agree that the MOD should not introduce the military as a career at too early a stage in children's education neither that they should gild the lily," he said. "But I think that most teachers see, as I do, the army and the other armed forces as a perfectly valid career for many pupils when they leave school."

The Ministry of Defence says the school visits are not recruiting drives but forums to inform students about the work of the Armed Forces and the career opportunities that exist.

Mr Robertson, who served in Northern Ireland, the Gulf War and Iraq, will be attending tomorrow's regimental homecoming for 36 Engineer Regiment in Maidstone to show his support for the services.

He said of the NUT action: "This is not about glorifying war, which is not a phrase that anyone who knew anything about the subject would ever use, it is about education - and that is exactly what schools are supposed to do."

Brigadier Andrew Jackson, who is in charge of recruitment, says the MOD visit about 1,000 schools a year on invitation only. He said: "The single-service school teams aim to raise the general awareness of the Armed Forces in society and not to recruit."