The National Cadet Corps - Preparing Future Generations of Loyal Citizens and Able Leaders
With a history that spans more than 100 years, the National Cadet Corps trains more than 5,000 secondary school students each year, both male and female. Many of these students have voluntarily continued in active participation even after completing their secondary school education.
The history of the NCC can be traced back to the formation of the first Army Cadet Corps in Raffles Institution on
15 May 1901. A second unit was formed in St Joseph's Institution the next year. The aim in those early years was to prepare students for the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC), a military reserve for the Straits Settlements. While the initial start-up was slow, the NCC movement took a leap forward in the 1920s with the aggressive recruitment of members. Among them was Singapore's first President, Yusof Ishak. He has the distinction of being the first student cadet to be commissioned as Cadet Lieutenant. The NCC continued to grow by leaps and bounds throughout the 1930s and 40s, and by 1949, there were also the Sea Cadet Corps and Air Training Corps.
In the early days, the NCC was managed at various periods by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Interior and Defence (MID). In 1969, the NCC HQ was formed, integrating the land, sea, air and Girls' units, together with NCC Police). With the split of the MID into the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs in 1970, the police cadet corps element broke away to become the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC). With progressive growth and the increasing need to improve training facilities for the effective implementation of the NCC programme, HQ NCC moved several times from Pearl's Hill to Tanglin and then to Haig Road.
left: Cadet Officers from Raffles Institution
right: Cadets undergoing a proficiency test, 1954On 30 May 2001, the NCC celebrated its 100th anniversary with the official opening of its new campus at Amoy Quee Camp. The camp is well-equipped to train cadets in routine military drills as well as other joint programmes with the SAF as part of the long-standing SAF-NCC Affiliation Scheme. The three Services of the SAF, the Army, Navy and Airforce, unflaggingly provide extensive support for the NCC in terms of professional advice, training means and resources. One of the primary aims of the NCC programme in fact is to prepare male cadets for National Service. Indeed, the whole NCC experience is an exercise in physical training, discipline, psychological preparedness, mental endurance and tenacity. It is part and parcel of citizenship education which cultivates such values as loyalty to the country, discipline and leadership.
Official opening of the Amoy Quee Campus, May 2001 “The SAF believes in the effectiveness of the NCC in preparing our youth for National Service. For this reason, the SAF started Affiliation Schemes between Army Divisions and the NCC’s Land Districts since 1969, and between the Navy and Air Force with NCC (Sea) and NCC (Air) since 1986 and 1987 respectively. Under the Affiliation Schemes, the SAF provides officers and specialists to assist the NCC in training the cadets, in testing their proficiency and organising visits to various SAF units. Cadets also get to use training facilities such as electronic ranges and stimulator training.
To further strengthen the link between the SAF and NCC, the SAF Unit Advisors Scheme was launched in 2000. Experienced SAF officers are assigned to school units to …improve the quality of training and administration in the units.”
Then Chief-of-Defence Force, LG Lim Chuan Poh