FINDING A BETTER WAY TO TEACH

He makes time to talk to his soldiers about current affairs every fortnight. And in between, he brings them to World War Two sites where the battle for Singapore was fought.

Not easily satisfied with these methods, Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Adam Hamzah, Commander of the Basic Combat Training Centre (BCTC), is still looking for more innovative ways to teach National Education to his soldiers.

"I think NE provides answers to many questions like why youths have to do their National Service," said LTC Adam. "Through NE, we are able to get our soldiers to understand issues like Total Defence and our survival."

LTC Adam said the way NE is put across to the soldiers is vital.

"If it's conducted in a classroom or if we force it down, they will find that National Education is not very interesting," he said.

That was why he signed up for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) National Education (NE) Workshops held at SAFTI Military Institute on 5 Oct.

A total of 105 senior officers, including Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General (LG) Ng Yat Chung, attended the workshops, which covered insightful methods of teaching NE.

The five workshops were Drama Techniques, Storytelling, Use of Newspaper Discussion, Use of Current Affairs Video Clips, and Organising DIY NE tours.

LTC Adam was assigned to the Drama Techniques workshop, which was conducted by a local organisation called the Drama Box.

He learnt how to use drama as an effective tool to bring the NE message across to his soldiers.

The workshop was an eye-opening experience for LTC Adam, who felt that such an interesting way of teaching NE would help in bringing across the NE message to soldiers.

"Rather than delivering of the message by one person, you can see plays, stories and hopefully the impact on the soldiers will last longer," he said.