YOU have to admit, many keen eyes have been following the National Service Training Programme (NS) ever since it was set up in December 2003 and kicked off in 2004.
It's been praised, criticised, mocked and celebrated - and calls for its revamp and reform have been flying thick and fast ever since it began.
I've thought long and hard about the National Service programme, even though I have never been part of it.
I've thought about it because I feel it could be improved to be a practical programme for the 18-year old Malaysians who are drafted into it right after their SPM exams.
These thoughts were of course, pushed to the back of my mind until Jan 20 when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the programme had been suspended as part of the Government’s cost-cutting measures.
This was followed by the Feb 12 announcement by National Service Training Council chairman Datuk Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashid that the suspension would be used to improve its modules and infrastructure.
He added that the improvements would be aimed at transforming NS o produce a high quality and balanced generation, which triggered the ideas I had kicking around in my head for a while.
At this point, I have to add with a note of caution that I'm no youth psychologist or education expert - so please bear with my rather modest proposal here.
Basically, I feel the whole programme should be turned into an internship programme. An internship programme that allows for two things; for youths to serve the country, and for these same school-leavers to get a taste of a working environment.
How can this be done? It's really quite simple, and it begins with an aptitude test given to all selected trainees a month before they're called up for NS.
They'll be asked to list down their ambitions, hopes, interests as well as what they want to study in university like law, medicine, engineering, journalism - or art and design. The results of this test will be considered along with their SPM trial exam results when it comes to the next step.
And what is the next step?
Say for example, a trainee has good results in the sciences in their SPM trial exams and shows a keen aptitude for medicine. For the first month of her NS stint, she'll be sent to a Health Ministry camp where she'll be given training to be a medical assistant.
Then for the remaining two months, she'll be posted to a hospital such as Hospital Kuala Lumpur or the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre - basically teaching hospitals - where she will work as an assistant to the housemen and shadow them, along with NS trainees of a similar aptitude.
It would be a similar case should a trainee test out with a high aptitude for teaching, and perhaps high marks for English and English Literature in their SPM trial exams.
The difference here is that the trainee would be sent to an Education Ministry camp for one month, and then to a school as a teacher's assistant for the remaining two months to serve out their NS stint.
And if the tests show they have a keen interest in law - that's one month in a camp run by the Attorney-General's Chambers, and a two month attachment with either the A-G's Chambers or as an assistant to a Magistrate or Sessions Court judge.
Basically, I think this will be win-win all round. The organs of state get fresh, young blood serving Malaysia, and young Malaysians get a taste of work life in the careers they hope to have.
What do you think?
> The views expressed are entirely the writer's own.
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