STUDENTS COMPLETING FULL-TIME NATIONAL SERVICE (Particulars)

Mr P. Govindaswamy asked the Minister of Defence how many students have completed full-time national service since the implemnetaion of national service; how many of them have been offered jobs or higher education; and how many of them are still jobless.

The Minister of Defence (Dr Goh Keng Swee): Sir, there are 2,449 national servicemen with School Certificate, Higher School Certificate, Diploma or Degree qualifications who have completed national service. Of these, 1,144 left the Singapore Armed Forces before teh Direction of Employmnet Scheme was introduced. The rest(1,305) had been registered with the Direction of employment Department as at 31st December, 1971. Of these, 1,007 are known to have obtained employment because their employment cards have been returned to the Department by employers. The others, some 298, presumably were still looking for jobs as on 31st December, 1971. It could be that most of these had only just been released.