Speeches
Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at the 50th Annual General Meeting of the Singapore Schools Sports Councils on Monday 29 December 2008 at 3.00pm at Hwa Chong Institution
Mr Lim Lai Chuan, Chairman, Singapore Schools Sports Council
Mrs Lee Hui Feng, Chairman, Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council
Mr Ng Ser Miang, Vice-President, Singapore National Olympic Council and Chairman, Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to join you at this 50th Singapore Schools Sports Councils Annual General Meeting. The Singapore Schools Sports Council (SSSC) and the Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council (SPSSC) were formed in 1959 to encourage sports participation and promote sports excellence. Today, over 55,000 students across all schools participate in inter-school competitions each year. The types of sports activities have also expanded - with 20 sports at the primary school level and 26 sports at the secondary school and junior college levels.
The Councils continue to play an important role in promoting sporting excellence in Singapore. Besides organising the inter-school competitions, the Sports Councils also send our top student athletes to the Asian and ASEAN Schools sports competitions, Pacific Schools Games and ASEAN Primary Schools Olympic Games. Recently, 178 student athletes returned from the 2008 Pacific School Games in Canberra, Australia. This year, SSSC also hosted the 1st Asian Schools Shooting Championships and the 9th ASEAN Schools Tennis Championships.
One of the most notable contributions of the SSSC was the leading role which it played in setting up the Centre of Excellence for Gymnastics in 1999. SSSC employed full-time coaches and worked with parents to identify and nurture talents. In 2005, our gymnasts won their first SEA Games gold medal since 1979. At the 2007 SEA Games, Singapore registered their best performance in gymnastics winning 4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals. The Council has laid the foundation and now partners Singapore Gymnastics to groom the next generation of gymnasts.
Many talents were identified through the Councils’ platform and subsequently nurtured by the respective National Sports Associations (NSAs) to represent Singapore in international competitions. At the 15th Asian Games 2006 held in Doha, 13 student athletes won medals in bowling, shooting, sailing and swimming. 43 out of the 126 medallists at the 2007 SEA Games were students from our school system.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all past and present school leaders and teachers who have contributed towards the work of the two Councils. The vibrancy of the school sports scene today bear testament to your dedication and commitment and I encourage you to keep up the good work.
Preparing Students to be Life Ready
The focus on sports is motivated by an educational purpose. Through Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs), Art, Music and Physical Education, we want to equip students with the right skills, mindsets and values for the 21st century, that cannot be achieved solely through academic teaching in the classroom.
Our task as educators must be to prepare each child well for the long marathon of life ahead. Our students will be facing a different world in the future, one that is more connected and inter-dependent. Changes in the socio-political, technological, and economic landscapes are also taking place at a relentless pace and our students will need to be able to continually adapt to these global trends and changes.
Sports provide an essential platform to help prepare our students to be life-ready. Through sports, students develop an active and healthy lifestyle from young - a worthwhile goal in itself to help inculcate discipline and good habits for life. But of course, as most sportsmen will testify, much more can be accomplished. Whatever the sport, the need for teamwork and competition provides a platform for our students to develop soft skills. It motivates them to aim high, train to achieve, and to learn to win and lose. Through it, bonds of friendship with team-mates are formed with those of different race, religion or nationality. This is why racial integration and nation building were the Councils’ key objectives when they were first established.
Through sports, students can learn positive values. This is why the Olympic ideals are centred on integrity and sportsmanship. In the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, British fencer Judy Guinness could have walked away with a gold medal. But in an amazing display of integrity, she pointed out to officials that they had not noticed two touches scored against her by her final opponent, Ellen Preis of Austria. The two touches turned out to be the margin of victory for Ellen Preis. Ellen won the gold medal and Judy Guinness the silver. Judy lost the gold medal but gained much more.
Those ideals live on and are never outdated, to be re-played in every generation. Some of you may also be familiar with the name, Lawrence Lemieux. The Canadian sailor was on track for a silver medal in the Finn class race at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. During that race, two sailors from Singapore, Joseph Chan and Siew Shaw Her, were thrown into the waters and were injured. They were unable to right their boat and the situation was dangerous. Sailing alone near the halfway point in his race, Lemieux immediately went off course, leaving his own race and went to the rescue of Joseph and Shaw Her. He waited for an official safety boat to reach him and transferred the two men onto the safety boat before continuing in his own race. The loss of time during the rescue operation put him out of contention. He finished 22nd in a race that started with 32 boats.
Sports build character, not least the importance of discipline and perseverance - skills which stand us in good stead through life.
At the Paralympics Games, swimmer Yip Pin Xiu defied the odds to win a gold medal in the 50m backstroke and a silver medal in the 50m freestyle, setting world records for both in the process. Pin Xiu was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when she was three. When she was five, her parents signed her up for swimming lessons with her brothers and other able bodied children to improve her health. Her success did not come easily. Because of her condition, Pin Xiu has to adapt to each change in her body. Four years ago, her front crawl was better than her backstroke. Today, Pin Xiu has totally lost the ability to kick and find it harder to rotate her trunk. So she swims the backstroke even in her freestyle races. Even as her muscles continued to degenerate, her left eye has started losing vision; she has defied the odds and made history.
Singapore also tasted Equestrian glory at the Paralympics for the first time when Laurentia Tan won bronze medals in two events. I met Laurentia and her family and congratulated them at the National Day Award Ceremony. Laurentia was born with cerebral palsy and profound deafness. Her parents were told that she probably would not be able to walk. At age 5, she took up horse riding as a form of physiotherapy for her floppy back as she could not sit and walk properly. Today, riding has not only improved her condition - she can walk and even drive a car, but it has also boosted her confidence and self-esteem. Her performance is exceptional, considering that she has only 18 months of training and she was up against a strong field which included champions and experienced Paralympians.
Pin Xiu and Laurentia serve as powerful examples on determination, resilience, tenacity and perseverance despite overwhelming odds.
For these reasons, MOE wants to develop a strong sporting culture in every school. In 2007, together with the SSC, it introduced the Sports Education Programme (SEP) to help achieve this. Through the programme, students are encouraged to participate in a variety of sports with the possibility of developing more advanced skills specific to the different sport-types offered.
I am glad to report that the percentage of schools opting into the SEP has been high. 85% or 311 schools opted into the SEP in 2007. This year, 94% or 342 schools have opted in. Next year, Special Education (SPED) schools will also be able to opt in to the SEP.
We have done well, but we want to go further. I have asked MOE to study two areas. One is to further encourage participation in at least one sports activity for every child, to build their kinaesthetic skills and appreciation. Not all can be top-performing sportsmen. But recreational sports should be available and enjoyed by all. Second, MOE wants to develop national Centres of Excellence in sports as well as other aspects of non-academic education to enhance the various programmes that exist in schools today. We can replicate the success we have had in gymnastics and sailing to other areas. The focus will not only be on encouraging excellence, but more importantly to raise the quality and provision of non-academic education for students across all schools to a new and higher level.
Youth Olympic Games 2010
Like you, I am excited by the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010 because it can boost our efforts to use Sports to transmit desired values, skills and dispositions to our students.
Inculcate Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect in our students
As host, YOG offers an excellent platform for teaching of the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. Our students will learn about the significance of these values and also be able to apply them through various activities.
Develop leadership and inter-personal skills in cross-cultural settings
The concept for the YOG is: ‘It’s an event for young people, by young people.’ Our students will be involved not just as athletes, but also as co-creators, co-hosts of the event. The YOG provides many opportunities for our students to be exposed to a broad range of experiences when participating as volunteers, home stay hosts, youth ambassadors and young reporters. These experiences provide opportunities to exercise leadership and inter-personal skills in cross-cultural settings.
YOG Twinning Programmme: Friends@YOG
Our students will also have the opportunity to be ambassadors of Singapore, as they participate in Friends@YOG, the YOG Twinning Programme. The YOG will also bring the world to our shores, providing our students the opportunities to learn more about the cultures of participating countries and forge new friendships with foreign participants.
I understand that our schools have been formed into groups and each group assigned to one or two National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The NOCs will be invited to nominate schools from their territories to participate in Friends@YOG.
Encourage sports excellence and national pride
Hosting the YOG will inspire our young athletes towards sporting excellence. This is in line with our focus on developing a diverse range of talents and many peaks of excellence among our students. Our students will not only feel a strong sense of national pride in playing host to visitors from around the world but also in demonstrating support for their fellow Singaporean athletes on home ground.
Olympic Education Programme
MOE has been working closely with the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) and the Singapore Olympic Academy (SOA) to develop our very own Olympic Education Programme (OEP). Among its goals, the OEP aims to stimulate interest in sports and societal issues, act as a catalyst for youth involvement in sports and provide an innovative introduction to Olympic values and Olympism.
Quoting one of the fundamental principles stated in the Olympic charter, “Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” Indeed, these are the very principles which we wish our young to grow up with. We want to impress upon our young that efforts, not results, count too. We also want to educate our young to be morally upright, be culturally rooted yet understanding and respecting differences. The OEP that MOE has developed will embrace these ideals.
Today, we will launch the Olympic Education Programme and the Olympic Education Resource Pack (OERP) to help schools implement the OEP. The OERP serves to connect students to the Olympic Movement and the traditions of the Olympic Games in preparation for the YOG. The lesson ideas and activities in the OERP will also blend sports with culture and education. The OERP brings to life the spirit of Olympism and inspire our youths to apply the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect to their daily lives.
The YOG will offer immense learning opportunities for our students. These are opportunities for us to create a memorable experience for our students that would have a lasting impact on their learning and holistic development.
Conclusion
As we move forward, we can, and should capitalise on sports and the opportunities provided by the various sporting platforms to provide holistic education for our students and prepare them for the challenges ahead.
I wish both Councils many exciting and fruitful years ahead. It is now my pleasure to declare the 50th AGM of the Singapore Schools Sports Council open.