Quote Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF
Endless: See, nothing sounds wrong with that idea. I've no aversion at all to making sure people know what the army is about and how it operates, in fact I'd quite happily volunteer for a day like that. But even so, such a day should be voluntary.

I think the main reason why it's obligatory (to both guys and girls, in fact, whereas military service was guys only) and not voluntary is that they want everyone of age 18 to take litteracy tests, not particularly to educate them (*) about the army. Also, it's how they do the census of people that age, in parallel to their registration on voting lists.

(*) On a side note, you have the obligation to go to school until you're 16, so it doesn't shock me at all to have one obligatory "citizen education" day.