National Military Service and its Impact on the People of Agaw Meder (North West Ethiopia)

The main objective of this study is to reconstruct the history of National Military Service (NMS) and its impact on the people of Agäw Meder. In order to undertake this study document analysis, in-depth interview, archival investigation and focus group discussions were undertaken as instruments of data collection. NMS was executed in Agäw Meder Sub-province thorough five main rounds and two second-calls. Though its emphasize on students of senior secondary schools and 12th grade completes, the recruitment for NMS was also focused on educated and uneducated, rural and town resident youths. NMS has both positive and negative impacts. When we come to the result, its participants and the community at large hated it. Despite the existence of numerous negative impacts, there are also some positive impacts of NMS on the participants, which include the development of multiethnic spirit, love of work, coping with hardship, exposure to military science and opportunity to learn vocation. This research was undertaken based on descriptive research design. This is because, it helps to achieve the objectives of the study and to find answer to the research questions of the study by allowing the researchers to describe the characteristic of the phenomena understudy.