Reply by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen to Parliamentary Question on NS Disruption

Mr Baey Yam Keng: To ask the Minister for Defence if he can provide the reasons why the provision for National Service disruption does not apply to National Servicemen enrolling in Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), Singapore Institute of Management University (UniSIM), LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA); and whether the policy can be reviewed.
Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen: Let me address Mr Baey's questions in two parts. First, in general, when disruption is granted and then specifically, in terms of the institutions he has asked about. Madam Speaker, when we disrupt National Servicemen from their training, it affects obviously the operational readiness of the units that they come from. So we grant disruption on a selected basis and specifically to Mr Baey's questions, it is on the basis of equity. This means that if his classmates or his peers were called up earlier in that year and they can go to university in a particular year, the person is question who is called up in later cohorts, he will be disrupted so that he can go into the university the same year as his peers. It is a fair basis in which we grant disruption.

Now on specific institutions, we currently allow NS disruption for servicemen to pursue full-time degrees at institutions that are funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) or confer their own degrees. These include full-time degree programmes at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). It will also include SIM University (UniSIM) when it begins conferring its own full-time degrees from 2014 onwards.