Resumption of Inter-school Games and Sports Competitions

The following question stood in the name of Mr Darryl David –

To ask the Minister for Education (a) when can inter-school games and sports competitions be expected to re-commence; and (b) whether more games and sports can eventually be included when the competitions re-commence.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, the National Schools Games involves intermingling of students from different schools in largely mask-off settings. As such, the Ministry of Education (MOE) takes a calibrated approach to the resumption of the games to ensure the safety and well-being of our students.

Earlier this year, MOE announced the cancellation of the remaining National Schools Games for 2021 due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in our community.

Our current plan is to resume all sports in the National Schools Games, in a phased approach, next year in 2022. As majority of our secondary school and junior college and Millennia Institute students would have been vaccinated, we aim to resume all sports for the National Schools Games for this group of students first. As for primary school students, the pace of resumption would depend on whether younger students would be eligible to be vaccinated. If not, we would need to exercise greater caution. For this group of students, similar to what was practised earlier this year, we will resume with low-risk non-contact sports such as badminton, table tennis, tennis and volleyball before higher risk contact sports such as basketball, football, hockey and rugby are considered. If necessary, we will make modifications to the games and competition format to mitigate some of the risk involved in these games.

As inter-school games and sports competitions like the National Schools Games are key student development experiences, integral to our students’ holistic development and overall sense of well-being, we would want to resume these activities as soon as we can and when it is safe to do so.