SUSTAINED ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS FOR SCHOOLS

SUSTAINED ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS FOR SCHOOLS: 5.

Er Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry is satisfied with the desired outcomes since the implementation of the Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) for schools; (b) how many schools have reduced its list of sports offerings under Co-Curricula Activity (CCA) for students in the last two years and what are the reasons; (c) how does the Ministry prevent schools from over-focusing on competitive sports in order to win the SAA at the expense of other sports; and (d) how does the Ministry ensure that schools offer at least a minimum number of sports for CCAs to benefit non-competitive students.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Education (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, introduced in 1998, the Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) to recognise schools for their sustained excellence in the aesthetics, sports and uniformed groups, has led to the pursuit of sporting excellence and the good student participation. About one-third of our secondary and pre-university students participate in sports CCA.

Schools provide a range of CCA options to students to cater to the varied interests and needs of students. Although there may be local changes at school-level, the average number of CCA sports in schools has remained constant over the last few years. On the average, secondary schools provide 12 sports CCAs.

Besides CCA, schools also conduct "Learn to Play Sports" courses under the Sports Education Programme (SEP) for all other students and organise sports carnivals as part of their recreation and enrichment programme for students. The zone sports development committees also organise inter-school games competitions for students who are not in school teams.

Er Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, I have two supplementary questions. First, the Minister of State has mentioned that one-third of students participated in a CCA, that means there will be two-thirds who did not participate in a sports CCA. I would like to know the reason. Is it because of the shortage of sports CCA in schools? The second question is: will the Ministry consider increasing the funding to schools so that they can provide more sports as CCA to those non-competitive students?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Students who do not participate in sports CCA may be in other CCAs. If you consider dance, for example, it may not be classified as sports, but it is very rigorous and is a good exercise, and many dancers stay very slim. In other CCAs, students are also participating in some form of physical exercise and competition. In addition, for students who do not participate in sports competition, there are many other opportunities for them to participate in Physical Education (PE) and the Sports Education Programme (SEP), which is co-funded by Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and MOE. Students have good exposure to various sports and activities and they all can participate in some form of competition. On whether or not MOE will increase the funding for sports CCA, MOE has already created various levels of participation. For example, we have already started the Youth Sports Academy (YSA) for various sports this year as a follow up to the Junior Sports Academy (JSA), so that students with sports talent can be nurtured by the best coaches.

Er Lee Bee Wah: Sir, what I meant is: for those students who do not play competitively but they would like to have recreational sports.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Funding is always available. It is up to the schools and zones to tap on various funds available to them to participate in recreational and non-competitive sports.