Functioning under the Ministry of Defence, the institutions of National Cadet Corps (NCC)—established in 1948, and Sainik Schools—set up in 1961—were mandated to provide a ready pool of motivated youth willing to serve in the armed forces. But a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has concluded that these two institutions have not been able to deliver well on their primary objective.
A recent report submitted in Parliament by the national auditor points out: “Performance of NCC candidates and students of Sainik Schools in terms of their intake into the Armed Forces through the NCC Special Entry Scheme and entrance examination for the National Defence Academy (NDA) was below the targets envisaged despite considerable number of candidates appearing for these examination/interview”.
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NCC ‘C’ certificate holders are directly called for the Services Selection Board (SSB) in a special entry scheme for recruitment of officers to the Army, Air Force and the Navy.
Every year, the Indian Army reserves 110 posts—100 for male cadets and 10 for female cadets—for entry through the NCC Special Entry Scheme. The audit found out that in the period from 2019-2022, against the pass-out of 2,82,829 cadets in the ‘C’ certificate examination, 14,898 candidates appeared in the SSB exam but only 289 cadets of the applicants were inducted into the Indian Army as officers.
A report by the Standing Committee on Defence for 2023-24 echoes the CAG’s findings when it said: “Despite the shortage of officers in the Indian Armed Forces, NCC had not given due weightage to train their cadets to become officers in the Armed Forces.”
On the other hand, the overall NDA intake from the 25 Sainik Schools had “declined from about 13.40% in 2019-20 to 10.57% in 2020-21 with reference to the total strength of Class XII against the target of 20% for each year”.
“In the year 2021-22, 120 cadets could only join the NDA against a target of intake of 250 cadets. Thus, during the last three years collectively, the Sainik Schools could achieve 9.70% success rate in the NDA,” the national auditor said in its report.
Both the NCC and the Sainik Schools are funded by both the Central and the state governments.
The expenditures incurred on the NCC in the four year period from 2019-2023 was about Rs 8,768 crore while the 33 Sainik Schools spent Rs 670 crore for the same period.
By way of recommendation, the CAG suggested higher funds and their better utilization, more participation of NCC cadets in training camp, better infrastructure and facilities besides resolving issues of required and trained manpower.
