NS training programme to introduce new module

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KUALA LUMPUR: A new module, called Reproductive Health and Social Education Programme (PKRS), will be introduced in the National Service (NS) Training Programme in May, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday.

EARLY BATCH: Over 42,000 NS trainees for the 8/2011 series register at the field of the Zetro Building in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama photo

The module would held build the mental strength of the teenagers and develop them into healthy individuals with noble values who had respect for one another, he said.

“This is not sex education … it is a module which exposes trainees to social problems, particularly those which involve teens,” he told reporters here.

Earlier, Dr Ahmad Zahid chatted with the first group of 1,200 NS trainees for the 8/2011 series at the field of the Zetro Building in Wangsa Maju here, and saw them leave for their respective camps in Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.

He said the National Service Training Department (JLKN) was in the process of drafting the module by taking into account the needs and sensitivities of the diversity of races, religions and cultures in a cosmopolitan population based on the 1Malaysia concept.

“The department also has to ensure that there is no overlap in the contents of the module and existing modules as well as undertake a review of the module on integration and that on drug abuse to match them with the PKRS,” he said.

He said the module would introduce trainees to knowledge not taught at school and that it was co-curriculum relevant to current needs.

Meanwhile, Dr Ahmad Zahid also said that the JLKN had approved all the 3,000 applications to join the NS training programme voluntarily, and added that these trainees would be placed in the first, second or third batch in two weeks.

He said the bigger number of people interested in joining the programme voluntarily was a positive development compared to the time when it was launched where many parents requested for their children’s participation to be postponed or cancelled.

The 8/2011 series will see 140,000 trainees join the programme at 79 camps nationwide. — Bernama