School visits as a whole by recruitment representatives from all three branches of the armed services across Scotland have increased by 81 per cent in total over the period, just 12 months after the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) called for a ban on such contacts.

Ms Grahame obtained figures in 2005 which she claimed back then showed that the army was deliberately targeting schools in deprived areas of Scotland.

And she says the latest figures she has from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) prove that visits to schools in Scotland by armed forces recruitment officers (comprising the army, RAF and Royal Navy) increased by 546 in 2005 to 989 by 2007.

Visits by army recruiters, increased by 186 per cent from 176 in 2005 to 504 last year. RAF visits, by comparison, showed only a modest 5.8 per cent increase in visits over the three years to December 2007.

Ms Grahame believes a growing shortfall in recruits has seen the armed forces, specifically the Army, seeking to target schools.

"I have been provided details of every single school visit made by members of the armed forces in virtually every school in Scotland, primary and secondary, and what they show is a clear and significant rise in contact recruitment visits," she told TheSouthern this week.

"The MoD has tried to claim that they only go to those schools where they are invited to attend. Are they seriously trying to suggest that in the context of the deeply unpopular war in Iraq and recent votes by the main teaching unions in the UK who oppose recruitment activity in schools, that headteachers have somehow decided to extend invites to the army at a rate of almost 200 per cent in the past three years?

"The MoD claims it 'does not solicit invites' but that explanation simply does not hold water and they know it.

"What I find particularly distasteful is that at a time when troops on the ground are complaining of inadequate kit and equipment shortages almost half a billion pounds (£476m) has been spent on this recruitment programme.

"Schools are wholly inappropriate environments for any sort of armed forces recruitment activity. The rise in army recruitment visits to schools since the illegal invasion of Iraq correlates directly to the steep decline in the number of people joining the army through more traditional routes combined with the increasing numbers of service people opting to leave the armed forces as a result of operational pressures, brought about by the cavalier attitude of the Labour government in London.

"The MoD is trying to plug that hole in its personnel levels by going into schools and selling an image of life in the armed forces that bears little resemblance to the reality."

Ms Grahame criticised MoD and army spokespeople who have previously tried to deny recruitment was taking place in schools.

"Recruitment in schools by the armed forces in going on and it is on the rise," she said.