The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Home Team have suspended basic training for a month - from today until May 4 - in line with the Government's "circuit breaker" measures to stem the spike in local coronavirus cases.
About 5,000 full-time national servicemen (NSFs) will be required to stay at home, going out only for essential activities, said the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in separate statements yesterday.
Both ministries said the suspension period will count towards the trainees' full-time national service (NS), and their operationally ready dates will not be affected.
The operationally ready date refers to the date when NSFs complete their full-time duties.
Those affected will continue to be eligible for NS allowance and medical benefits during the period of suspension, the ministries added.
These latest measures follow the announcement last Friday of the strictest measures to date to keep people at home and break the chain of coronavirus transmission, including closing most workplaces for at least a month from today.
For the SAF, about 3,400 NSF recruits from the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) on Pulau Tekong and BMTC School 5 in Kranji Camp II are affected.
For the Home Team, the suspension covers about 1,600 trainees on the Police Officers Basic Course at the Home Team Academy and the Basic Rescue Training at the National Service Training Institute.
MHA said the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will manage any operational impact arising from the suspension.
Mindef said it has reviewed the impact of suspension. "With the increase in transmission of local cases, the SAF... concluded that there would be little impact on operations as active units would be able to provide cover," it added.
Other SAF training schools which are needed to maintain SAF's operational readiness, such as the Officer Cadet School and Specialist Cadet School, will continue with enhanced safety measures previously announced, it said.
The same goes for the Officer Cadet Training for the police and SCDF trainees, said MHA.
Activities involving operationally ready SAF national servicemen such as in-camp training and the Individual Physical Proficiency Test have already been deferred until May 4.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Mindef said for those whose enlistment dates fall on April 20, they will be "administratively enlisted" on that day but do not need to report to camp. They will be given a new reporting date after the suspension ends.
As for those enlisting next month after the "circuit breaker" period, both ministries said further updates would be given if there is a change in reporting date.
Associate research fellow Ho Shu Huang of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said the SAF has developed some online platforms, such as a learning portal called Learnet some years ago, which would facilitate recruits' learning from home.
As for the factors that could have led to the decision to suspend basic training, Mr Ho said the SAF is simply following the Government's policy to keep everyone safe from the coronavirus.
