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SINGAPORE – Overseas training for apprentices at the Singapore Armed Forces Officer Cadet School (OCS) has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cadet officers now also have to maintain their own platoon, which has 40 or fewer people, including instructors, for training as part of safe distancing measures.
Designated routes to the blocks where the cadets remain have been arranged to prevent different platoons from interacting at the Safti Military Institute in Joo Koon.
Cadets also have their meals in their two-man rooms, as common areas such as pantries in the accommodation blocks and kitchen are closed.
They have to wear a mask at all times inside the school when they are not doing strenuous activities, while activities deemed nonessential, such as hand-to-hand combat training and family visits, have been postponed or canceled.
These are some of the changes OCS, which currently trains more than 750 cadets to become military officers through a 38-week course, has adapted to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.
Other changes include having a home apprenticeship for certain theoretical lessons and halving the number of soldiers on military buses and trucks when transported to and from training areas.
Training continues at SAF training schools such as OCS and the Cadet Specialist School during the circuit disruption period that began April 7, even when basic military training was discontinued and field training for the military was deferred operationally ready nationals.
Colonel Edwin Goh, the OCS commander, said Monday (May 11) that the school should continue to generate officers for active and operational units as the SAF continues to defend Singapore in the midst of the pandemic. The SAF constantly needs to prepare new officers to replace those who have completed their full-time service.
Journalists on Monday (May 11) watched as the 78 Alpha Wing cadets, who are part of the next group of apprentices scheduled to commission as officers in June, conducted their training. Their commissioning parade, where loved ones are often invited, will also be modified to become a smaller-scale ceremony with no guests.
When asked why OCS was unable to do home learning alone, which is the deal for recruits from the Basic Military Training Center (BMTC), Col Goh, 46, said there are aspects of cadet training for officers that home learning cannot cover.
“The cadet officers are in a more advanced stage of training, unlike the BMTC where the SAF has decided that they can suspend training for a time and compensate it later,” he said, adding that some of these aspects include leadership and team dynamics as well as resilience training.
Regarding the cancellation of the exercises abroad, he said that such training is very important, since it offers a different environment, atmosphere and terrain that “train the resistance and adaptability of the cadets.”
Overseas training, such as jungle survival, has been redesigned to take place in Singapore.
The Alpha Wing cadets, who had completed their jungle confidence course in Brunei prior to the circuit interruption period but missed their second exercise abroad last month, had trained in Pulau Tekong for a week.
Col Goh said that while local training may not fully replicate what can be accomplished abroad, cadets can still pick up the necessary skill sets and knowledge so that training standards are not compromised.
He added that separating cadets into “functional groups,” such as platoons, was to ensure that there was no opportunity for cross-transmission. “The key here is ensuring that each functional group has its own training area and time, so if you can’t group them by area, we would stagger them by time to make sure they don’t mix.”
Measures have also been implemented in OCS to improve personal hygiene.
Personal equipment, such as water bottles, should not be shared and hand washed before meals are applied. The cadets also march from point to point in a formation that is more extended than usual.
On Monday, reporters watched Alpha Wing cadets wear masks when performing their exercises as they exited a model helicopter in preparation for a key full-day exercise on Tuesday (May 12).
Assistant platoon commander Alpha Wing, Lt. Mohamed Haiqal Mohamed Zainal, 24, said the precautionary measures taken are to ensure the safety of the cadets.
“It is our responsibility (as instructors) to ensure that everyone in the future complies with these measures, and they have to understand why. We cannot allow groups to form in OCS, because we have to continue training.”
“If a group is found in OCS, it will affect their training, morale and overall well-being,” he said.
Officer Cadet Songkiat Ow Shiyuan, who is from Alpha Wing, said he was disappointed that the exercises abroad were canceled as it was one of the highlights of OCS training.
But he felt that overseas training standards can still be replicated in Singapore. Regarding the exercise in Pulau Tekong, the 22-year-old said: “The intensity was really great. There were consecutive missions and we did not sleep much; all this was to train our resistance and whatever they have learned as cadet officers.”
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