NDA set to introduce new curriculum

Pune, May 24 (UNI) Anti-terrorist operations and Humanitarian law are the two new courses that will be integrated into the new curriculum of the country's premier academy - National Defence Academy (NDA) - to address the changing needs and challenges of the Army, Air Force and the Navy.

Followed since 1987, the new module will encompass anti-terrorism operations to humanitarian law and will be integrated into the curriculum from this year's autumn term beginning in July, NDA commandant Lt Gen A K Chopra told reporters recently.

He said, ''The lesson we learnt from Kargil was that we had lost focus of basics. The basics need to be taught right and we will emphasise on it''.

Mr Chopra said the last time the NDA set its curriculum was in 1987, two years before insurgency began in Kashmir. Emphasis will be laid on 'service subjects' with weapons handling from the first term itself and increased technical knowhow in subjects like armament technology. The review reports of NDA training - inter services training and academic study review - have been accepted by the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Jawaharlal Nehru University, he added.

NDA is bringing in a lot of changes, laying emphasis on the overall development of the cadets. All these are done while keeping vision 2020 in Mind, NDA Commandant said.

The New syllabus will have specialised service subjects, which will be taught in the last term. Also, the cadets will get more time instead of just five months of military training initially. The service subjects will include International Humanitarian Law. A concentrated dose on military training, etiquettes, ethos and values will be given to cadets right from the begining, Chopra said.

The ageing infrastructure is also being changed. ''While formulating this syllabus, we had an interaction with the three training academies - The Air Force Academy in Hyderabad, Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun and the Naval Academy in Goa--where our cadets go after they pass out from here. This interaction gave us an idea about their requirements, he said. ''Besides this, the Academy has been having interaction with foreign defence academies and in that light, we had sent our delegations to the US and Australia.

Likewise, many foreign delegations visited us in the last six months, we are also restructuring the foreign languages programme especially those in use in the neighbourhood countries to enhance the skill of the cadets, he said.

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