The National Service could learn a thing or two from Israel
When the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel in 1967, no one gave Israel a chance. So, when Israel decimated those armies in only six days, it became the talk of nations. This small Jewish nation acquired an aura of invincibility.
But Israel wasn’t invincible – the fact which was brutally exposed when Egypt and allies came knocking again during the Yom-Kippur War in 1973. Equipped with new Russian weapons, the Arabs knocked out hundreds of Israel’s tanks in a couple of days and, Israel had no response whatsoever. However, a chance discovery helped them change the battle tactics, and they turned the tables on their Arab foes again.
Nonetheless, the fact that their enemies had threatened to overrun their defences was a cause for real concern – their nation’s survival depended on that. Their solution – to develop an elite youth training unit which would ensure that they always maintain a technological edge over their rivals. They called it ‘Talpiot’.
For this unit, the Israelis recruited the absolute best of high school performers and submitted them under gruelling physical and technical training. The goal was to have a select number of candidates who would be taken through accelerated university physics and maths programmes before being posted in the army to address problems that needed ingenious solutions.
While most ‘Talpions’ usually leave the military after six years of required service, they are highly sought after while they are in the army, and afterwards they produce significant impact on Israel’s academia and technology fields.
While this elite training system is an extreme example, it underscores Israel’s philosophy of broad-based technical and military training for innovation philosophy for its youth during their national service experience. This is what has made Israel one of the most innovative nations on earth today, making it indispensable for top technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Google.
Contrast that to what Tanzania does. While in Israel national service is compulsory for all youth of 18 years and above, selection to certain units is incredibly competitive – in fact, many corporate entities consider being an alumni of those units to be more competitive than graduates of top universities. In Tanzania, instead, criteria for selection to the National Service (JKT) are practically ambiguous – where even those with only seven years of schooling are selected!
Again, in Israel you have solutions which were developed for the military being customised competitively for use in business. For example, industries that supported Israel’s development of new fighter planes spin off to become leading high-tech producers. It is this pool of well-trained and disciplined individuals which attracted the likes of Cisco, Google, IBM, Motorola, Mitsubishi, and Microsoft to set up subsidiaries in Israel. In Tanzania, instead, projects are developed not to raise the performance ceiling but to subsidise government spending (through cheap labour) and stifle competition with private enterprises. Ultimately, you end up with an archaic institution that has its hands in every pot but one that produces little or no transformation at all in the market.
Is it any wonder that the corporate world doesn’t put any premium on such ‘same-ol’, same-ol’ training? Probably even the government itself doesn’t consider going through the National Service as an added benefit for its recruits. Does it?
To achieve JKT’s mission of kujenga taifa, that is, building the nation, its objectives need to be restated for these times. Gone are the days where one can simply claim a number of candidates trained as an achievement – again, any vocational training institution can do that. When the army is used, one expects a solution that only the army can provide.
To meet the tsunami of about a million youths leaving Tanzanian schools a year, how do you train and equip some of them to regenerate the economy through their inventiveness? How do you make them internationally competitive as entrepreneurs, leaders, farmers, and professionals? Is this a mission which can be achieved in a culture that puts a premium on strict adherence to ranks rather than performance, or secrecy rather than transparency? Not in a million years.
Back in the 1960s, when the National Service was conceived, Tanzania consulted the Israelis for know-how. This wasn’t unusual. Others, such as Singapore, did the same thing too: Israel’s exceptional strategic qualities have made it a go-to nation for many a challenge. However, looking at the trajectories which the two nations’ have taken in the past 50 years or so, it is unlikely that the Israeli architects of Tanzania’s programme would look back and be impressed. Probably it is high time to review the approach and relearn.
In short, a paradigm shift is required where the targets will be ‘how many jobs have been created’, ‘how many start-ups have been launched’, ‘what contributions the programme has had on GDP growth’, and ‘the value of exports achieved’. That implies initiating projects to organise, train, and launch youth-led start-ups in various sectors. It implies creation of business and innovation hubs. It also implies increased collaboration between the national service and businesses and academia.
Finally, with increased competitiveness, the programmes must be ‘sold’ so that the public will understand their value and relevance. Otherwise, people will continue to wonder – why go through National Service?
