Radio Erena: 03 February 2015
Uganda says it has plans to introduce mandatory National Service similar to that of Eritrea and Israel.
Ugandan National Planning Authority, in a statement released citing the Eritrean and Israeli experiences in regards to national service programs, pointed out that the Ugandan school children will be sent for national service after they graduated from high school and before they join college. They will be sent for a nine-month-long military training and will be deployed in different sectors for assignments on national development for six-months there after.
According to the statement, if the program is implemented as planned, it would enable Uganda to own a larger national reserve on top its regular military forces.
The Ugandan planning authority notes the plan will make Uganda be the second African nation to implement a compulsory national service program next to Eritrea, if the bill is approved by the country’s parliament.
The government of Eritrea has left the national service program open-ended which was originally set for only 18 months, under the pretense of unresolved threats from neighboring Ethiopia and that this has become the main cause of emigration.
The limitless national service has been criticized by many as exploitation of free labor and wasting the youth’s opportunity in vain.
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