France begins compulsory national service for teenagers

quote:

---

Nearly two decades after France phased out conscription for men, some 2,000 teenagers on Sunday began a pilot programme for a new national civic service, a pet project of French President Emmanuel Macron.

---

quote:

---

Macron caused surprise on the campaign trail in 2017 by promising to introduce a month-long compulsory national service, saying he wanted to give girls and boys "a direct experience of military life". The proposal got a cool response from the army, which baulked at the prospect of having to put millions of teens through their paces, prompting the government to come back with proposals for a compulsory civic service instead.

---

quote:

---

Described as an "integration phase", teens will be taught first aid, map reading, emergency response for different scenarios and other skills. Imbued with a military ethos, the national service centres, managed by a “chief of brigade”, will each feature five houses of 10 young people, Gabriel Attal, secretary of state to the minister of national education told Le Parisien. Although each house will have an adult supervisor, the teens will be responsible for dividing up tasks and taking care of the houses. One of the most important objectives for Attal is getting young people out of their habitual familial, social and regional surroundings, and to open their eyes to new experiences.

---

quote:

---

One unwelcome new experience might be the ban on mobile phones, except during a single hour of downtime in the evenings. But it’s all part of the plan to get the youngsters to engage with each other. After dinner each day, they will debate different social issues. “For example, discrimination based on sexual orientation and disability or radicalisation," said Attal. "On Monday, after the French women’s football match, there will be a discussion of gender equality.” The teens will also train to respond to a variety of emergency situations. “We want to give youngsters reflexes for defending, protecting and reacting to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, organising search parties for missing people, and so on,” said Attal. At the end of the stint, they will simulate a crisis scenario, like a traffic pileup or a nuclear accident.

---

quote:

---

Macron has billed the service as a way to develop patriotism and social cohesion in a country battling deep divisions between left and right, rich and poor, and religious and non-religious. The programme, which will be written into the constitution, will be rolled out over the next seven years, targeting about 800,000 youngsters per year and eventually becoming compulsory.

---