Teachers are to launch a campaign against military recruitment campaigns that employ "misleading propaganda" in schools.

The National Union of Teachers yesterday vowed to back any school staff who wanted to boycott recruitment campaigns by the armed forces.

The union will hold a summit of teachers, education experts and campaigners to consider the issue of military recruitment in schools after allegations that the Ministry of Defence is employing heavy-handed recruitment campaigns in schools.

The NUT is concerned that some lesson materials prepared with MoD backing undermine schools' legal duty to present controversial issues to children in a balanced way.

Last week the NUT's leadership revealed that it had complained to the education secretary, Ed Balls, on the issue.

One worksheet supplied by the MoD and designed by a private marketing company, Kids Connections, describes the UK's military efforts in Iraq as mainly targeted at "helping the Iraqis to rebuild their country after the conflict and years of neglect".

It describes the work the armed forces have done in security and reconstruction, and notes the 2005 democratic elections. But union officials said it failed to mention the US-led invasion, Iraqi civilian deaths and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

The union backed a motion committing the NUT to "support teachers and schools in opposing Ministry of Defence recruitment activities that are based upon misleading propaganda".

Paul McGarr, a delegate from east London, told the conference: "Personally I find it difficult to imagine any recruitment material that is not misleading. Let's just try and imagine what that recruitment material would have to say were it not to be misleading.

"We would have material from the MoD saying 'Join the army and we will send you to carry out the imperialist occupation of other people's countries. Join the Army and we will send you to bomb, shoot and possibly torture fellow human beings in other countries'.

"Until then, I think that all recruitment material is misleading and should be opposed," he said.

Brigadier Andrew Jackson, commander of the recruiting group at the MoD, said that teams representing the armed forces visited 1,000 schools a year - at the invitation of teachers.

"Their aim is to raise the general awareness of the armed forces in society, not to recruit. We are proud of the work we do with schools and colleges to inform young people about the tremendous work and careers on offer, which can provide fantastic and unique opportunities to a wide range of people from all sectors of society," he said.

An MoD spokesman added: "Our recruitment practices avoid 'glamorising war' and 'propaganda'. Anyone considering a career in the Armed Forces is presented with clear information and all aspects of service life are discussed in detail, following a sensitive recruitment process."