NPCC is just one of the many CCAs that you can choose in secondary school.
With the rather heavy commitment to the CCA, is it something worth joining?
I had the opportunity to interview someone who went through NPCC (Pasir Ris Secondary School division), and here’s what you need to know:
What is NPCC?
The National Police Cadet Corps(NPCC) is a CCA for young individuals from the ages of 13 to 17 to learn about public safety and law enforcement at secondary schools with the support of the Ministry of Education(MOE) and the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA).
My Tough Experiences As An NPCC Cadet
My trainings for NPCC were once a week every from Secondary One till Four
These usually lasted four hours a day, and we had to learn various activities including:
- Basic drills
- Pitching tents
- History of NPCC
When my squad and I first started training at the beginning of my journey as an NPCC cadet, it was a rather difficult process as we were young individuals who were really lost.
The different drills were really hard to remember as they involved a lot of footwork and techniques.
This resulted in us having to repeat the drills multiple times until they were perfect.
Moreover, the commands given by the instructors and seniors were rather tough too!
Learning the different kinds of knots for pitching tents was also not easy as well. When we were first introduced to the world of knot tying, we didn’t know how to do the techniques properly as it consisted of many steps in order to achieve the desired knot that we wanted to do.
Moreover, we needed to use certain knots during the tent pitching process. Pitching a tent also required a lot of teamwork. Since we were not really close to each other at first, we lacked teamwork and as a result, we failed many times.
As a national uniformed group, discipline is really important. During training, the seniors and even the instructors were very strict when it came to perfecting the basic drills.
If we continued repeating the same mistakes, there would be some punishments like push-ups, which could last for a few minutes!
Despite the number of harsh punishments we received as a squad at the beginning, we eventually got closer to our seniors over the years and they became friendlier towards us as we were more experienced and disciplined.
As an NPCC cadet, it was compulsory for us to attend a three day, two night NPCC camp at Pulau Ubin during our second and third year in NPCC.
This camp consisted of different batches from different schools and we were divided into different groups, given us the opportunity to interact with different cadets.
Some of the activities that we did during the camp included kayaking and pitching our own tents.
However, the most memorable memory was the campfire event that was conducted on the second day at night where we sang campfire songs and every group was required to do a short skit in front of everyone.
Although there were some difficulties in adapting to the outdoor life, it was a fun experience as I got to make new friends and it taught me to be more independent and disciplined as an individual.
Juggling NPCC with studies
It was rather difficult to juggle NPCC together with my studies, especially during my third year.
This was because we were given bigger responsibilities as cadet leaders from taking care of the newer squads to planning other upcoming events.
My role was to take the attendance of every squad during the beginning and the end of each training session, and find out the reasons for the absentees.
Conclusion
In April 2016, we had the POP event and it was the end of our NPCC journey as we needed to focus on our N and O-Level examinations.
As a former cadet, although there were periods where the journey was difficult, it was a rather meaningful experience as over the years I have learnt to grow as an individual.
NPCC has helped me to become more mature and disciplined, and I still apply what I have learned during NPCC to work and university till today!
Wishing everyone a fun memorable journey during your own CCA journey!
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