If it depends on Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS), candidate volunteers in the army will no longer have to present a certificate proving that they have completed primary education. This is apparent from a bill that the minister has submitted to the House. N-VA thinks that’s a bad idea.
Today, the certificate of primary education is a prerequisite for becoming a candidate volunteer in the army. Minister Dedonder wants to abolish this study condition. In this way, she wants to help ensure that the Ministry of Defense offers career prospects for people who have complied with compulsory education, but who still do not have a certificate.
The abolition also fits in with the Minister’s ambition to make Defense a means of social promotion. Dedonder considers this certificate an “administrative formality without added value. After all, the expected competencies of an applicant candidate volunteer are sufficiently tested on the basis of the foreseen selection tests”, the legal text states.
“Social Employment Battery”
Opposition party N-VA does not agree with that abolition. “Scraping the primary education certificate is a bad idea. This certificate offers the guarantee that at least the attainment targets for primary education have been achieved. Being able to read, write, calculate, and read comprehension in one of our national languages is an absolute minimum to become a soldier,” says Member of Parliament Theo Francken.
The question arises for the Flemish nationalists whether all those competencies are tested during the entrance tests. “The PS seems to want to turn Defense into a social employment battery rather than a combative army of the future. Everyone gets in. Recruiting 10,000 new soldiers in four years is almost impossible, but the bar should not be set for that yet,” concludes N-VA.
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