"National Service Training Program (NSTP): Care for Development"

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

National Service Training Program or NSTP is a program aimed at enhancing civic consciousness
and defense preparedness in the youth by developing the ethics of service and patriotism while
undergoing training in any of its three (3) program components which are Literacy Training System (LTS),
Civil Welfare Training System (CWTS), and Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC). These various
components are specially designed to enhance the youth’s active contribution to the general welfare.
(Philippine Institute, 2016)

The National Service Training Program (NSTP) is a curriculum requirement for all college
students under Republic Act (RA) No. 9163. The law provides an opportunity for the youth to directly
contribute in nation building.

As I have said earlier every student should finish in any of the NSTP three (3) components.
Reserved Officers Training Corps or simply ROTC deals with military training that will motivate, train,
organize, and mobilize students or youth for national defense preparedness. While Civic Welfare
Training Service provides an opportunity for students to share their time, talent, energy, and resources
with marginalized communities or sectors.

National Service Training Program ( NSTP ) is a plan aimed at heightening civic consciousness
and defense readiness in the young person by developing the morals of service and nationalism while
undergoing developing in any of its three plan constituents. Its assorted constituents are specially
designed to heighten youth’s active part to the general public assistance. This Act was made to reply the
motion to get rid of ROTC and others to make reform of the plan. The Act affirmed that the premier
responsibility of the authorities was to function and protect its citizens. In bend. it shall be the duty of all
the citizens to support the security of the State and because of this the authorities may necessitate each
citizen to render personal. military or civil service (Atienza, 2014). Acknowledging the youth’s critical
function in national edifice. the State shall advance civic consciousness among the young person and
shall develop their physical, moral, religious, rational and societal well being. It shall instill in the young
person nationalism. patriotism and progress their engagement in public and civic personal business.

At the beginning of the semester, I was not looking forward to this course the most. This is
because I knew there will be group discussion with my classmates whom I am not familiar with. In
addition, I need to give a speech in front of my classmates which made me worried and nervous since
those are my weakness. However, after attending the lectures and tutorials for a few weeks, I started to
gain interest in this course as I learnt a lot of new things.

I also thought that NSTP was just an extra baggage in our curriculum for which students were
required to attend but I was wrong, I have learned many things from  NSTP and it served as an eye-
opener not just for me but also for the majority of my fellow school mates. I have learned things that
made me realized that I am fortunate enough because I have a family that are always there to support
me not just physically, mentally but also financially, because there were families especially children who
were not supported by their families, who were abused and who were abandoned by their own parents.
It was such a pitiful event when someone is lacking of support from their own families.

As we tackled a lot of issues in the Philippines, poverty and equality have a lot to do in our
community. First, one of the things that I noticed is that poverty is the main cause why most of the
Filipino suffer from their lives, unemployment, high prices of goods and services and tax were the one
who also pushes poverty rate to increase, It is so sad that we cannot do anything for them, we can’t
eliminate poverty which is really impossible to do. Second, gender inequality, I learned that we cannot
please anyone but we can do something to make them realize the real world, how things work in this
world, that we need equality, equal rights, equal opportunities, equal access to a meaningful life, equal
participation in decision making, equal responsibilities, and equal development. Do not allow
discrimination to be raise in your community, take an action, be responsible as a citizen and do what you
must do to help your friends, family, love ones or even strangers who are in need of help.

This subject NSTP or specifically CWTS (Civil Welfare Training Service) helps me to grow more,
helps me to appreciate and understand its history, the values we can get when we cooperate in this kind
of program and the knowledge we can share to people who need training for development and civil
consciousness. According to Jose Abueva, we must possess specific traits that will help build a good
society. Love for our country, responsive, God-centered and working for common good of all Filipinos
are among them for us to obtain our goals. Values are already part of our life as a Filipino. We are trying
to eliminate poverty for the longest time. High population growth and employment issues are among
the causes. We should be aware of our rights as a citizen of our country.

Strong leaders are needed to implement the changes we need to improve the situation we have
now in our country. The most important criteria are transparency and rule of law, if we will be able to
resolve the graft and corruption in our government officials, there will be a hope for a better Philippines.
Parents should be responsible for up bringing of their children. What they learned at home shows up in
the society and reflect the type of discipline imposed to them while they are young. Sustainable human
development aims to secure lives. People must be socially active for their own development.

We must care for everyone, we must care for everything and we must care for development,
because at the end of the day we are the one who will get benefits from our own actions and own
decisions. The changes that we need in our society are our responsibility, if we want something to
happen, we must start planning for it and do the necessary steps to achieve it. We cannot rely our
future to our leaders. We must not wait for someone to act when we can do it ourselves because we are
responsible for our own development.