The Hindu : National : NCOs to pursue academics at new institute

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 20, 2004

National

National

NCOs to pursue academics at new institute

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 19. The Army has embarked on an initiative aimed at academically equipping all its non-commissioned officers (NCOs), a step that official sources said would encourage some of them to graduate to the officers' cadre and thus partially bridge the shortfall of officers — estimated at nearly 12,000. At present 18 per cent of the officers' cadre comprises NCOs.

The decision to set up a special institute for NCOs was formalised at the recent Army commanders' conference and will start with pilot courses for 1,000 personnel in the Binnaguri Cantonment in North Bengal from April 2005. The Chief of the Army Staff, N. C. Vij, laid the foundation stone for the institute at Bengdubi, 10 km from Siliguri, today. The capacity of the institute will be progressively raised from 12,000 to 20,000 students per year over a five-year period.

Only three to four per cent of the NCOs became regular officers earlier, but special training and coaching classes have increased it to 18 per cent. "In many cases, NCOs have abandoned their studies at the graduate level due to family circumstances and joined the Army. This institute will give them another opportunity to study and hopefully some will be able to enter the Army Cadet College in Dehradun and become regular officers," said official Army sources.

The motto of the institute will be "To victory with initiative and offensive action." The institute will train NCOs in all types of terrain — mountains, jungles, plains and urban and semi-urban environment. The idea is to lay additional emphasis on inculcating greater initiative and leadership qualities at the NCO level. This will help them to respond to various operational situations appropriately.

In addition to setting up a NCO academy, the Army has prepared a proposal seeking to increase the tenure for short service commissioned (SSC) officers from 10 years to 14 yearsThis is because the short length of service does not seem attractive enough for the youth. The Army also plans to allow the officers to leave the armed forces at the end of 10 years.

Another proposal seeking to increase the intake of officers is the recruitment of lady officers. The intake of lady officers was increased from 50 to 75 a couple of years back.

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