“More than 5,500 male college students reaching conscription age enrolled in the program this summer, up from 3,000 a year before,” an MND official said. “We expect more enlisted draftees to opt for the program going forward.”
Under the initiative, ROC male citizens born after Jan. 1, 1994, and presently enrolled in tertiary education can fulfill their service obligations over two separate summer breaks. University conscripts can serve two terms of two months during their first and second year summer vacations, with junior college draftees breaking down their training in the third and fourth years of studies.
But college and high school graduates, as well as those discontinuing their education, must complete military training in a single term.
“The initiative was launched as part of the government’s drive to transform the armed forces into an all-volunteer force,” the official said, adding that several complementary measures are in place to ensure this goal is reached by 2016.
Compulsory military service in Taiwan was scaled back to four months of basic training in 2013, down from 12 months in 2008 and 20 months a decade ago. (YHC-JSM)
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