SPORTS AND UNIFORMED GROUPS IN SCHOOLS (Participation)

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SPORTS AND UNIFORMED GROUPS IN SCHOOLS:

(Participation): 2.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Acting Minister for Education with the recent plan to get more students involved in sports and uniformed groups, revising the co-curricular activities (CCA) points and introducing a ninth uniformed group (a) what is the existing percentage of students participating in sports and uniformed groups in primary and secondary schools; (b) what other steps are being planned to ensure that more students can participate in sports or uniformed groups; and (c) has his Ministry set targets to increase participation.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, currently, about 35% of primary school students and 38% of secondary school and junior college students take sports as their Core CCA. For the uniformed groups, currently about 6% of primary school students and 37% of secondary school students have uniformed groups as their Core CCA.

We are creating more opportunities for broad-based participation in sports at the school and zone levels, so as to reverse

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the trend of declining participation over the years. A good number of schools have stepped up efforts to engage the majority of their students in sports. We are encouraging this amongst more schools.

At the school level, we will leverage on the House System to allow more students wishing to participate in games at a recreational level. With the assistance of student sports leaders, we expect that at least 70% of secondary school and JC students will have the opportunity to be involved in at least two sports events per year organised by the Houses. It is not the exact number that matters but the fact that the schools are taking this seriously, such as through the House System, and feel that there is opportunity to create a lot more interest and participation among the students. We are also encouraging schools to use PE lessons to teach a variety of sports and games skills.

We launched a Student Sports Coaching Course and a Student Sports Official Course earlier this year. This year we hope to train 100 student sports coaches and officials in each of four games, namely, basketball, netball, soccer and touch rugby. They will assist their teachers by coaching their peers in school in basic sports skills, or help officiate in intra-house sports competitions. The scheme provides these students with additional opportunities to develop leadership abilities as well.

From next year, workshops in schools will be conducted for student leaders in badminton, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and floorball. Over time and with experience, we hope to widen this programme to more sports and games, depending on demand.

Schools can also tap on adult volunteers, especially parents. MOE has

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also recently extended the current Volunteer Adult Leaders (VAL) scheme for Uniformed Groups to all CCAs. This allows schools to tap on the enthusiasm of parent volunteers with relevant sports skills.

At the zonal level, we have formed Sports Development Committees this year to promote sports among students who do not have the opportunity to represent their school in the sport. This has taken off well, and the various zones will be organising games competitions and carnivals this year for about 15,000 students in primary and secondary schools.

We will continue to collaborate with our partners such as the Singapore Sports Council, and the various National Sports Associations and the Uniformed Groups Councils to further extend our activities. In fact, schools are already tapping into the Singapore Sports Council's "Learn-To-Play" sports@basic programme with the aim of allowing more pupils to take part in the recreational sports.

Uniformed Groups (UGs) are another important activity which can foster ruggedness in our students. Some schools had given us feedback that having more options for UGs will help in expanding student participation.

We will be starting a new Uniformed Group, the National Civil Defence Cadet Corps, as a new CCA next year. The new Uniformed Group will be jointly run by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Home Affairs, and will be piloted in eight secondary schools.

We have revised the ranking system for schools to give greater recognition to schools that put effort into developing their students holistically. It will take into account the breadth of student participation in activities which promote physical health. We have also tweaked

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our CCA grading system for students to introduce greater flexibility, and to encourage students to take a sport on a non-competitive basis as a second CCA. It also gives added recognition to students who represent Combined Schools or Singapore in sports, who have to spend long hours in training.

With these strategies in place, all secondary school students will have the opportunity to be involved in sports and other rugged activities, at either the recreational or competitive level. We hope to see a progressive increase in student participation in sports at all levels, but we are not setting hard targets that have to be achieved. I should add that none of our initiatives mandate participation in sports. We will encourage, we will provide greater opportunities for students to engage in sports and other rugged activities but we will not make it obligatory for them to do so.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan (Hong Kah): I would like to ask the Minister two supplementary questions. Firstly, how would the Ministry resolve the often-cited reasons given by schools for not accommodating all students who wish to take part in such activities because of a lack of facilities and manpower, as well as the fact that some have even said that they had closed their soccer teams because they want to emphasise on the sports they think they can excel in? The second question is: can the Minister also consider adding more bonus CCA points to sports and uniformed groups compared to the more passive CCAs than are presently proposed to encourage higher participation in what is generally acknowledged as useful activities in terms of ruggedness, teamwork and leadership qualities? I would also like to ask the Minister, with regard to participation in house sports and activities and so on, would that be considered for CCA points?

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Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: First, on facilities, overall our schools have access to quite good sports facilities compared to almost any other country you can think of, both within their school premises as well as in the cluster of schools or in the community. But we will keep track of this and, where we feel there is a need for better facilities in certain schools or in certain zones, we will see what we can do. There is of course a manpower constraint in schools and we do not want to over-burden our teachers with more responsibilities in CCAs. What we are doing basically, and what many schools have already done, is to allow for greater participation in sports, first, by way of involving student leaders; second, by involving parents, and third, by appropriate distribution of teachers' duties. And some schools have shown that this can be done very effectively. They have very high rates of participation in sports, especially amongst students who are not representing the school in inter-school competitions but would like to take part in sports on a recreational basis. So it can be done, and we are sharing best practices amongst the schools on how we can best spread sports participation.

We have also provided some incentives for schools to take this seriously. The new ranking system will look not just at excellence in sports at inter-school competitions but also the breadth of participation in sports and other physical activities. This will be one of the criteria by which we will assess schools in their ability to provide a holistic education to their students.

I would not want to go too far in using bonus points and the CCA grading system as a means of influencing behaviour. We have made some modest changes to the system, first, to recognise the fact that those who represent Combined Schools and Singapore have to put in very long hours and go through tremendous effort,

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and they deserve credit for doing so. So we have up their points slightly. We have also chosen to encourage students who currently take a Core CCA in the performing arts or clubs or societies, to consider taking a sport as a second CCA. It is not a full CCA - a second CCA means you take it for about 15 weeks or so, enjoy yourself, learning the basic sports skills, take part in some competitions within the school. And for those who would like to take that sports as a second CCA and who are not good enough to represent the school, we will nevertheless give them some CCA points.

These are modest changes to the points system. At the end of the day, students would have to do what they love, they have to do what they like and take it seriously. That is what we encourage every student to think about. Do not just take a CCA for the points. They are not doing themselves any justice if they do that. They should think about what they really like to do and take it very seriously. We are providing some incentives for those who are not very good at sports, ie, not good enough to represent the school, to take it as a second CCA as a recreational acitivity, and we will give them some recognition for it. But there is a limit to what we can achieve through the points system. Students should ask themselves what they like and go ahead and do it.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong (Tampines): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister about the the new Uniformed Group that is to be run by MOE and MHA. Can I ask the Minister how different it will be from the present uniformed groups being run now like the girl guides, scouts and so on? My second question is: while I support fully this move towards getting more students involved in sports and uniformed groups, can I ask the Minister why is there a need to have a new Uniformed Group now,

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especially since the present ones are having trouble already in attracting young students to their fold?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Our sense is that there is no trade-off in introducing a new Uniformed Group. We are not going to be drawing students away from existing uniformed groups. In some schools, it is a matter of leadership resources. By creating this new group, we are able to tap on new leadership resources, including the MHA organisations. I think it provides something different from what the existing uniformed groups provide. The National Civil Defence Cadet Corps will gear students in exercises on emergencies and such activities. There will be some overlap in activities with existing uniformed groups but it will provide for broader variety of options.

There are also some students who do not find the existing uniformed groups to be their cup of tea but would like something like the new Uniformed Group. We have done a survey and found some interest. The schools that have responded positively to this are keen to start it up, not so as to decant students away from existing uniformed groups but as a way of increasing overall participation. So let us try it out. We are starting out with eight schools. I think it will work well and we will take it further from there.

Mdm Cynthia Phua (Aljunied): Two supplementary questions, please. Most schools go for selection process, even for CCAs. In view of the emphasis on CCA for mass participation, would it demolish this selection process? The second question is that we understand some of the community activities can be considered as part of the CCA programme of MOE. How many of such community activities have already been selected, and what are they?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: On Mdm Cynthia Phua's first question,

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"demolition" is not a word customarily used by Education Ministers. We encourage, we enthuse and we provide opportunities. I think that is what schools are trying to do. The schools might have been overly selective in the past, partly because of resources, and because they have focused on excellence. We would like to encourage participation but I would like to leave it to each school to decide what they can do within their resources. The spirit is there. The schools are keen to encourage participation and we have given them some incentives to do so now.

On Mdm Phua's second question on community CCAs, I do not have the details here but all of us can tell from what we see around us in our constituencies and CDCs, that there is already a fair bit happening. Some of them are the initiatives of the CDCs or the constituency grassroots, but a lot of it is coming from the schools themselves. There are service learning clubs and other initiatives in the school. By getting the school students more involved in the community, quite apart from the existing welfare-related activities that have existed for some time, they would be getting more engaged in something productive and constructive in the community. It is working well. I do not think it needs very hard pushing because the schools and the community organisations are enthusiastic.

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister about sports injuries. With the encouragement of sports, especially contact sports, one would expect that injuries among school children would increase. Has the Ministry taken steps to increase the first-aid facilities in schools?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Our sports instructors receive some basic training on how to advise students on avoidance of sports injuries. That is why they warm up and do all kinds of exercises before they start anything

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strenuous. The schools also have basic provisions for first aid. When something serious happens, of course, we will send them to the hospital very quickly. It is not a huge problem right now. It is not something that is holding us back from our effort to push forward in sports. It is something we will keep in mind to make sure the schools are well-prepared for eventualities.