The military profession is associated with a discipline, values and a culture in general. In order to make the transition from civilian to military life satisfactory for future soldiers, in some countries a subject, pre-military instruction, has been incorporated. As its name suggests, it is a teaching-learning process (hence the term instruction) through which future members of the army become familiar with the tasks of the armed forces.
The pre-military instruction integrated into the educational system has a double objective: to learn basic knowledge about the armed forces and, in parallel, to make society aware of the importance of defending a territory against any internal or external threat.
Essential knowledge
A pre-military instruction program includes military aspects, but also social values, cultural training, and physical education. Some of the knowledge that is transmitted are the following:
- Legislation, norms and ordinances related to the armed forces.
- Values and attitudes, such as discipline, loyalty, companionship, respect or love for the country.
- From the point of view of physical education, future soldiers exercise to achieve good physical preparation and healthy habits.
- Learning military tasks is, logically, a fundamental issue in instruction and content related to hierarchical organization, marches, songs and hymns, types of training, command orders and, ultimately, the daily life of a soldier are learned .
The controversy over pre-military instruction
This type of program does not exist in most nations, only in a small number, such as Venezuela, Cuba or Israel (in Israel, school-age children carry out training activities at military bases). Each of these nations has reasons for implementing a pre-military training model.
On paper, the arguments justifying these programs may seem legitimate and reasonable. However, some consider that the pre-military instruction linked to the educational system is, in reality, a mechanism for indoctrination of the civilian population. Detractors of pre-military instruction in schools consider that military education and civil education should be totally separate in the educational system of a nation.
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