SPEECH BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION & 2ND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE & MP FOR PASIR RIS GRC, AT THE PCF PASIR RIS GRC KINDERGARTEN SPORTS MEET 2000 ON SUNDAY 7 MAY 00 AT TAMPINES STADIUM AT 3.30 PM

2     The aim of the PCF Pasir Ris GRC Sports Annual Meet is to bring children, parents and teachers together for good, clean fun while promoting a healthy lifestyle. I am glad that more than 900 pupils, teachers and parents from 15 kindergartens participated in today's Sports Meet. I am even more heartened to find so many parents and family members coming to cheer and support the participants.

3     As parents and teachers, we should encourage our children and interest them in sports and games from a tender age. What better way to do this than to take part in sports and games with them. Not only are we arousing the natural curiosity of children as they play, we are also stimulating their sensory perceptions.

4    Sports keeps a person active, alert and healthy. Physical activity is especially important in a child's early years. It is not just about throwing balls, jumping, skipping, and running. Getting children to think and to use the body in skilled and co-ordinated ways hones a different type of intelligence - what Howard Gardner refers to as "bodily-kinesthetic intelligence". We need to provide our children with the opportunities to develop in multi-faceted ways, and the kinds of sporting and fun activities they are engaging in today help to promote their holistic growth.

5    The benefits of engaging in sporting activity are not merely physical. Participation in sports and games enhances the development of social, emotional, and intellectual skills. It provides the children with valuable opportunities to interact with their peers, from which they learn how to conduct themselves properly, how to speak in a polite way, and how to take care and motivate one another. More importantly, they begin to appreciate values such as discipline, teamwork, resilience, honesty and fair play.

6    The intellect is also stimulated as they attempt to understand the instructions and rules governing the game. Some games may even require the children to plan, to strategize, thereby stimulating their cognitive skills further.

7    The need to build the foundation for a healthy lifestyle for our children from young cannot be over-emphasized. I hope that we will be good role models for our children. We must find time for regular physical activity for the family, which not only keeps the family fit but also enhances family togetherness. Our actions speak far louder than mere words. As Knute Rockne, a well-known football coach, once said, "One man practising sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it".

Thank you.