In October 2014, my elder son received notice that his national service enlistment date would be Jan 5, 2015.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) examination results are released on Jan 5 every year.

As my son was an IB student, I wrote to the Central Manpower Base (CMPB), which responded and re-scheduled him to enlist a day later, after collecting his results.

Now, my younger son, also an IB student, has been notified that he would be enlisted on Jan 4. This means he would enlist only to come out the next day to get his results.

I understand that his school, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), has made contact with the CMPB regarding this.

My sons are not the first students taking the IB. They are certainly not the last.

It puzzles me that nothing has been done to look into this enlistment scheduling conflict, which happens annually and takes up manpower resources and time.

Enlistment for boys who took the IB exam should be done after Jan 5.

Surely, data can be obtained and synchronised among the government agencies - in this case, the Ministry of Education and CMPB - so a seamless operation is created and inefficiency and unproductive work are reduced.

Khong Kiong Seng