Officers press on with SAF command and staff courses amid Covid-19

Captain (NS) Abdul Haniff Abdul Khalik was about three months into his command and staff course, which prepares servicemen for more senior appointments in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), when the circuit breaker forced all lessons to be moved online.

He was apprehensive about the change, initially. "For us mature students with children and work commitments, the move to home-based learning was pretty challenging," said the 39-year-old father of three, an operationally ready national serviceman who is a senior manager at security services provider Certis.

So he was glad when he was allowed to return to the campus at Safti Military Institute in June. Capt (NS) Haniff found the safety measures put in place by the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College effective and reassuring.

Candidates were split into groups of 10, known as "minimal learning units", to enforce social distancing when they returned for the residential phase at the college. All lectures were conducted online even when trainees were in camp.

"The college gave all the measures quite a bit of thought as we had staggered arrival times, and even dispersed locations for meals," he said.

Capt (NS) Haniff was among the graduands of three command and staff courses at a ceremony at Safti Military Institute yesterday.

The ceremony took place simultaneously at different locations in the training institute to maintain social distancing.

In a speech, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, guest of honour at the event, congratulated the graduates for carrying on despite the Covid-19 pandemic, including those from other countries who remained in Singapore to complete the course. "Despite the outbreak, we have roughly the same number of graduands as previous years, 226 in total, including 49 national service (NS) commanders, one Singapore Police Force officer and 20 international officers from 13 countries," he said.

"The participation of these international officers reflects the mutual trust and closeness of ties between us and their home countries," he added.

The graduates were from three different variations of the command and staff course under the SAF college. These were for regulars, an equivalent one for national servicemen and two batches of the version designed for executive personnel like military experts.

The Ministry of Defence website says the command and staff courses represent the highest level of formal military education offered in Singapore for regular, national service and international officers.

In his speech, Dr Ng also noted that national security threats had not diminished despite the pandemic and Singapore must cope with the pressures of an increasingly connected and yet vulnerable world.

"Climate change, cross-border terrorism, cybercrime, maritime disputes and malpractices continue around the world," he said.

He reiterated that Singapore's defence forces must be able to deal with both security and the virus simultaneously. "We have to deal with the pandemic but we cannot neglect or let down our guard against other security threats," he said.