Can National Cadets Corps or NCC training be made compulsory in schools and colleges? Is it possible to implement it? This question is being raised once again especially after the Punjab government took initiative in this direction. As a pilot project, the Punjab government has decided to implement it in all the schools and colleges in border districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh shared the information about pilot project on twitter. In his tweet, Punjab Chief Minister said that a decision has been taken to launch a pilot project for compulsory NCC Training to students of class 9, 10 and 11 in government schools besides first and second year college going students and university levelin border districts of Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar to make them employable in the armed forces.
What did Manohar Parrikar say in 2016?
The National Cadet Corps came into being by an Act of Parliament in 1948. It comes under the Defence Ministry. Ever since the bill was passed in 1948, the demand to make NCC training compulsory for students has been raised from time to time. The then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had informed Lok Sabha that it was not feasible in terms of infrastructure and resources to make NCC training compulsory for school and college students. He had also told the lower house that to make it compulsory, then nearly 4 crore youth will have to be trained against the 13 lakh being done now.
Benefits of NCC training
The importance of NCC can be understood from the fact that it is headed by a Director General with the rank of Lieutenant General. NCC training offers many benefits to the trainees. Those who attend a minimum of 75% of NCC training, get a certificate from NCC according to their level. The certificate helps them in their career. Cadet possessing `C’ certificate gets exemption from entrance exam of SSB.
