SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL (Update)

Column: 1679

SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL:

(Update): 12.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports if he will provide an update on the success of the Singapore Sports School and whether many students have sustained serious injuries due to intensive training in the school.

The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): The Singapore Sports School is into its second year of operations, and the progress to date has been encouraging. For instance, the school has five student athletes selected for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in Manila . Nine national age group records in Track and Field and Swimming have been surpassed by our student athletes.

The Sports School 's students have also attained success at Asian and World age group levels, such as winning the Girls Under-15 Singles Title at the 2005 Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships. Nevertheless, I must stress that this is early in the game, and it will take some years for our youth to mature and reach their athletic peak.

I would like to reassure Mr Chia and my Parliamentary colleagues that the Sports School has comprehensive Sports Science professionals to monitor the growth and development of our student sportsmen, and minimise their injuries.

The majority of injuries surfacing in the Sports School are minor to moderate injuries like muscle strains and sprains. There have only been six cases of serious

Column: 1680

injuries to date, which we classify as those injuries requiring recovery periods of more than eight weeks. Three of these students have already recovered whilst three are in the final stages of rehabilitation.

The severity and number of injuries experienced by the Sports School athletes are not higher than that of national athletes training under the National Sports Associations. Let me assure Members that the Sports School will continually monitor and enhance its injury prevention and treatment practices.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong: Some supplementary questions, Sir. Out of the six students, three have recovered, the other three are still in the intensive care. So far, has any student dropped out of the Sports School because of injury? That is my first question. The second question is: as the school is performing well, why is there a drop in its enrolment this year? The third question is: what is the school's enrolment target for 2006 and is it able to reach that target? The fourth question is: why did the school open up enrolment for non-citizens? The fifth question is: has the school reached ---

Mr Speaker: How many questions are you asking?

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong: Last question. Has the school reached its enrolment capacity or is it still under utilised at this point of time?

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I said just now that the school is only in its second year and, so far, according to our records, the girls and boys have done quite well. Whether for this year, there is a drop or not, like I said, this was not asked in the Question. So if he sends us the question, I will give him the answer. But, as a whole, my Ministry monitors the enrolment very closely,

Column: 1681

bearing in mind the potential of the local students, but we also want to give the opportunity for some interaction to those outstanding students from overseas. I think we want to develop this excellence in our society. On injuries, like I told him just now, whether any student has dropped out because of injury, I do not have the information. But based on the last three months, the average injury is about 20 students and all those cases which are below two or three weeks' rehabilitation, we consider them as minor injury. Only those with more than eight weeks' treatment, we treat them as serious injury. At the school, we have the doctors, physiotherapists and also the coach, and they form a team to monitor all these injuries very closely. The students are very well taken care of.