Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Mdm Chair, getting into a school’s sports team can be very competitive these days. Schools usually hold trials to select only the best athletes to represent them at the national school games. Many students want to take up sports like badminton, basketball or football as their co-curricular activity (CCA) in school, only to be disappointed that they cannot get a place in the CCA. Some are left with no choice but to join a CAA they have little interest in.
To cater to students who want to play sports for leisure but lack formal training, schools should open up more recreational sports CCAs for popular sports. Many schools already do this, but some still do not.
To manage limited resources, schools could adjust the number of CCA places to match demand. This way, schools can ensure that every student who wants to participate in sports at their skill level has the opportunity to do so.
On the other end of the spectrum, top performing student athletes who have the potential to represent Singapore at international competitions are often still required to train with their school’s sports teams. High performance sports training usually takes place outside of school, at training programmes run by National Sports Associations or private academies.
These student athletes should have the option to be excused from school training and competition so as to be able to better focus on becoming world-class athletes who can compete on the world stage and win medals for Singapore. They should still be allowed to earn LEAPS 2.0 points while doing so.
I will discuss the sports aspect of this further in my cut at the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) COS debate.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong): Mr Chairman, I thank fellow Members for their passion towards students’ development. Ms Denise Phua spoke about students’ health habits and Mr Gerald Giam called for sporting opportunities for all. Our students experience diverse sports in Physical Education (PE) lessons, exploring which sport best spurs their passion. This will drive them to pursue it and keep active throughout life. Most schools also work with SportSG to offer the Sports Education Programme to further increase quality sports programmes for our students.
CCAs remain key platforms where students discover their interests and talents and develop strong character. Today, nearly 40% of our students are in sports CCAs. To better cater to student interest, most primary schools do not conduct CCA selection trials.
While schools seek to provide a good range of CCA options to cater to students’ varied interests, a lack of critical mass may prevent them from providing more CCAs. For example, Suresh Amirthanathan Tharshika, a Secondary 2 student from Broadrick Secondary School, was talent-spotted by her PE teacher after a school race. However, her school did not offer Athletics CCA.
This is why students like Tharshika welcome the Strategic Partnership CCA (SP-CCA). Since 2019, MOE has partnered with MCCY to pilot centralised, non-school-based CCAs, with Athletics and Water Polo as the first two sports. SP-CCA widens the choice of CCA for students beyond what is offered by their secondary schools. Under the guidance of coaches from the SP-CCA, she will be participating in her first National School Games Track and Field Championships this year.
Micah Choo is a student from Pasir Ris Secondary School. After two years in the SP-CCA Water Polo programme team, he grew in leadership skills and is now one of the CCA leaders. Micah met teammates like John Chia from Bukit View Secondary School and Zacharia Teng from Fairfield Methodist Secondary School. Although from different schools, these boys forged strong friendships beyond the pool. When Micah struggled with Mathematics, John helped him. Micah did the same for John with Humanities. Micah’s story highlights how SP-CCA provides opportunities to cultivate values and life skills and promotes friendships with peers from different backgrounds.
I am pleased to share with Members that MOE, together with MCCY, will be expanding the number of sports offered under SP-CCA. We will include canoeing this year and will offer hockey in 2026.
Ministry of Education
6 March 2025
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=budget-2611
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 