SCHOOL CADET CORPS MEMBERS (Reduction of period of full-time national service)

3.06 p.m.

Mr Tay Boon Too asked the Minister of Defence if he will consider reducing the period of full-time national service from two years to one and a half years for persons who have served three years in school cadet corps.

The Minister of State of Defence (Mr Wee Toon Boon) (for the Minister of Defence): Sir, the Member does not appreciate the difference between service in School Cadet Corps and full-time national service in the Armed Forces. Apart from differences in training systems, service in the Cadet Corps is purely voluntary. A schoolboy joining the Cadet Corps does so as part of his extra-curricular activities and because he finds service in the Corps interesting and useful. He is better motivated than other boys and wants to set an example to them in serving the country.

Those who have done well in the School Cadet Corps should qualify when doing national service for promotion to the officer grade, or at least to the NCO grade. They will then be doing two and a half years' service, not two years, much less one and a half years.

To allow Cadet Corps service to count for national service purposes would introduce an element of self-seeking calculation which will undermine the whole spirit of the Cadet Corps.