New committee formed to encourage lifelong interest in sports

SINGAPORE: A newly—formed Sports Pathways Committee is looking into ways to encourage lifelong interest in sports among Singaporeans.

It is also hoping to better identify local sports talent for the national team.

"One of the things we’d like to see is can we better bridge that connection between the school—level sport and senior—level sport," said Lim Teck Yin, the chairman of the Sports Pathways Committee and CEO of Singapore Sports Council.

"I think there are many sports talents that actually drop out of the system after they leave school, and what we’d like to do is to build a stronger bridge in identifying who they might be and how we could facilitate their continuing involvement in the elite sport."

He added: "There are more than 30,000 students who take part in national school sports competitions, and I’m very sure in my mind, in the working adult level or senior level, that pool is a lot smaller."

The 11—member committee also hopes to inculcate values and character through sports.

One way it is doing this is through a new framework called National Standards for Youth Sport with three principles:

"Place the youth’s interest before yours"

"Be a role model"

"Have fun, winning isn’t everything"

The Singapore Sports Council has conducted a series of workshops for some 600 sports instructors to raise awareness of these principles among parents and youth.

Launching the framework was newly—appointed Senior Minister of State for Education, Indranee Rajah, who also spoke about her immediate priorities.

"So far, I think I’ll be looking more at childcare as well as the institutions of higher learning," she said.

— CNA/xq