Sports CCAs in Schools

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry would make sports CCAs compulsory for all students and not just for those on the school teams; (b) how many schools offer sports CCAs to all students; and (c) what percentage of our student population is not taking part in any sports.

Mr Hawazi Daipi (for the Minister for Education): Sir, MOE recognises the value of sports participation in contributing to the holistic health and fitness of our students. Through Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs), such as sports, students develop social emotional competencies and strong values such as resilience, teamwork and discipline, as well as build strong friendships and bonds that are critical for a strong, cohesive and harmonious society.

Whilst engagement in sports and games is encouraged across all student segments, sports participation in school is not confined to participating in sports CCA or sports competitions. While about 30% of our students participate in sports CCA, all students participate in sports through their Physical Education (PE) lessons, school inter-class games, sports day, swimming carnival and other mass participation sports events in schools.

Schools have also tapped into the Sports Education Programme (SEP) Funds to offer learn-to-play programmes for additional breadth of sports participation. The Sports Education Programme (SEP) is an initiative introduced by MOE and Singapore Sports Council (SSC) which aims to promote sports participation in schools. The programme provides a spectrum of options that range from traditional mainstream sports to more unconventional sports such as wakeboarding, sport climbing and in-line skating. In addition, the SEP also offers a "sports leagues" category where schools can organise intra-school competitions for students to hone their sporting skills.

Besides the abovementioned, some schools have also woven specific sports modules within the total curriculum. Jurong West Secondary School, for instance, has introduced various sports programmes such as basketball, volleyball, netball, frisbee and hockey for students who are not offering sports as a CCA. This augments the overall developmental opportunities for students to be engaged in structured recreational sports.

Through the varied platforms of PE, CCA and other school-based programmes, almost all students have opportunities to participate in sports in schools.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah: Mr Speaker, I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether he receives feedback from students that they are interested to play certain sports but because they are not in the school team, they are therefore not given the opportunity. If so, is there any action that can be taken?

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, we receive feedback from all segments of society – parents, students and even Members of Parliament. [ Laughter. ] I can assure the Member that most students are able to take up the CCAs of their first choice, including sports CCAs. Over the past years, 72% of students have been able to take up sports CCAs as the first choice; 17% as the second choice and 6% as the third choice. What it means is that students have a lot of opportunities to take up sports CCAs that they like. But, of course, we cannot expect all students to like sports. We want to encourage students to take part in sporting activities.

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I mentioned in my reply that schools make use of the SEP Fund to encourage students who are not in sports CCAs to take up sporting activities. At St Hilda's, for example, the librarians are involved in line-skating for a period of six weeks using the SEP. At Jurong West Secondary School, students who are not involved in sports CCAs get to learn one or a few of these games – basketball, volleyball, netball, hockey and frisbee. It can be just throwing of the disc but it can be very fun, and they get involved in sporting activities.

Mr Yee Jenn Jong (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Sir. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his answers. I scanned through the most recent book published by MOE introducing secondary school education to the public. I noticed that most schools offer, perhaps, four or five sports CCAs. I would like to ask: Does the Senior Parliamentary Secretary feel that four to five sports CCAs is enough? I also noted that a number of popular sports like football and basketball are not being offered by many of the schools as sports CCA. The second question I have is that in speaking to a number of schools, one of the problems told to me is that they do not have the budget to hire the coaches and to handle the logistics for more than the four or five sports CCAs. So would the MOE consider increasing the budget to support sports CCAs?

Mr Hawazi Daipi: May I just ask why the Member thinks that four or five sports CCAs is not sufficient?

Mr Yee Jenn Jong: I think it is not sufficient because in a typical school, there are 1,500 students and you have only four or five sports CCAs with, say, an average of about maybe 20 members, sometimes, in the smaller sports there are 10 members participating. I do not think that is enough to go round. I personally experienced this myself or I hear this from my friends – difficulties getting our own children into the sports CCAs that they wish to simply because it is not being offered by the school.

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, I think the Member is talking about students who represent the schools. Yes, we do need students to represent the school in sports or games that schools have chosen. Nevertheless, students have the opportunities to learn to play the games and take part in competitive games through other opportunities – through the CCA, inter-class games, carnivals, and so on. Many schools use the SEP Fund which is an initiative of SSC and MOE. So I would like the Member to consider that taking part in sports should not necessarily be just based on sports CCAs. It should be done through PE lessons which are now more structured. We have introduced more PE lessons in primary schools now and the students have the opportunities to learn to be able to like the games and to play on their own. So playing games should not be confined to taking part in CCAs in school. We can provide more opportunities by working together with the community organisations.

Mr Speaker: Mr Lim Biow Chuan, last question.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan: May I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary this: I have received feedback that students who are interested in certain sports were told that they must take part in the sports CCAs to represent the school, otherwise they are not allowed to take part in the sport as a matter of leisure. Is this something that the Ministry would encourage or discourage? The other question is: can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary share with us how many schools have tapped on this SEP Fund provided by the Sports Council, so that we can have a gauge as to how many schools actually use these funds to provide sporting opportunities for their students?

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Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, the second part of the question first. More than 90% of schools applied for SEP. Out of about more than 350 schools, more than 90% have applied for SEP.

On feedback from students who informed the Member that they were not allowed or they were not recruited into certain CCA since they are unable to represent the school, if he has any specific example, he can let us know. However, generally, CCAs are not just meant for students to represent school. There are sports CCAs and other CCA activities which are meant for students to learn to play and to learn to interact.

Apart from that, let me iterate that learning to play and to be able to enjoy playing certain games can be done outside CCAs. It is already introduced in structured PE lessons, it is introduced through inter-class games, inter-house games, inter-school games. I think there are opportunities but not every student can represent the school and resources are limited. I would admit a school has only one field, there is only one hall. If you want to introduce 20 games, then there will be great competition for the use of the school field. So schools will have to choose the games that can be introduced which students can learn to play, students can compete and students can enjoy playing even after they have left school. There is a choice to be made.