Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) believes and supports all In-Camp Training (ICT) call-ups for our male staff. Our “No Deferment” policy (unless with compelling reasons and documentary proofs) has been a long-standing policy in our school’s effort to enable our male staff to fulfill their National Service obligation. During the time when our male teachers are called away, other teachers, or if necessary, relief teachers, will cover their teaching duties. Fellow CCA teachers will voluntarily cover the duties for their colleagues. Mr John Wu, our Secondary 1 Level Head and Subject Head for Learning Technologies shared his personal experience: "When I received an SAF 100 for a 4 weeks Intelligence Specialist course in February this year, I was apprehensive of the impact of my absence from school on my students as I had duties per-taining to being the Sec 1 Level Head and a Mathematics teacher. The school assured me that they would deploy resources to cover my lessons as well as share the load of planning and im-plementing programmes for the Sec 1s among the middle managers. That gave me the peace of mind to go for the course. The school leaders are very supportive of NS men serving their in-camp and they spoke to me about giving my best while in service. Mr Peter Tan, the principal, spoke to me personally about having the right attitude and emphasized the important role of the NS men in national defence. His encouragement, as well as the arrangements at work, gave me the motivation to focus on my course. At the end of the course, I was awarded the best NS man trainee for the course. " The school also educates our students on national security and total defence. At events such as Total Defence Day, and National Day, our male staff is encouraged to don their military uniforms to help our students see the relevance of National Service to all. Our expatriate staff also shares their living experiences in their home countries during International Friendship Day. Mr Manmohan Singh, our Vice-Principal for Admin, said: “Building trust and confidence among Singaporeans are key ingredients in ensuring the stability of our Total Defence network system. Modern threats and challenges have taken a new dimen-sion and our communities - regardless of race, language or religion, must provide the firm pillars to ensure that Singapore, as a small nation remains safe, secure and resilient at all times. The school is an excellent environment for our children to learn the importance of Total Defence and as educators, we must ensure that we provide them with this opportunity to appreciate and con-tribute towards the nation's Total Defence effort.” ACS (Barker Road) will continue to pledge our commitment towards collective nation building through the support for our NSmen staff, for The Best is Yet To Be. (Contributed as part of the NS45 campaign which commemorates the 45th anniversary of Singapore's National Service, with the theme of "From Fathers to Sons")