Reply by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence to Parliamentary Question on Early Enlistment to Full-Time National Service for _A_ Level Pre-Enlistees From Overseas Institutions

One fundamental principle of National Service (NS) is equity - every enlistee is treated in an even-handed and fair way compared with other enlistees. Equity is essential to maintain the strong support of our population for NS.

MINDEF therefore ensures that, as far as possible, those in the same cohort from our local educational institutions are enlisted at about the same time, and complete their full-time NS in time to proceed for further studies in the same year as their peers. Pre-enlistees who complete their 'A' Levels overseas in June are enlisted in the same way as others in their cohort who take the 'A' levels in the same year, and are thus no better off and no worse off than their peers who studied in Singapore. They will be able to enter the same university in the same year as their peers who complete their 'A' Levels in November at educational institutions in Singapore. They are assigned to the appropriate quarterly enlistment batch that will enable them to do so.