“I don’t think that it would be like during the Soviet times when schoolchildren used to dismantle rifles or similar things. (…) But the segment of patriotic education, informational awareness, civic education must clearly be strengthened and we are taking these steps. The secondary education programs should include basic military education classes as an alternative to the third physical education class or history class. At least that’s the proposal of a special panel but no decisions have been made yet,” Pavalkis told journalists on Thursday.
In his words, such classes could be delivered by national defense volunteers. “People from the volunteer national defense system should come and share their experience, knowledge, enthusiasm etc,” the education minister said.
A survey of 657 schoolchildren from upper classes (Year 8-12) last December and January showed that two thirds of them lacked information about the country’s security, national defense or army.
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