Debated in Parliament on 19 Jan 2015.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That Parliament do now adjourn."
Question proposed.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Dr Benedict Tan, you have a maximum of 20 minutes.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to declare my interests as the President of the Singapore Sailing Federation and Sports Patron of the Singapore Disability Sports Council.
In my clinic each day, I see lots of students from our local schools, with their parents in tow. At some point during the consultation, the Singaporean parent will ask, "Dr Tan, can you write my son an MC to excuse him from PE and sports? At the same time, can you also ask the school to allow him to use the lift?" You will see a similar dialogue with pre-enlistees or their parents requesting for excuse letters or permanent downgrades. Many doctors will tell you that these are common scenarios.
I see students from our international schools as well, such as the United World College and the Singapore American School. No, it is not the MC that they are after. Rather, they want me to sort out their injuries so that they can continue and finish the baseball season and be fully fit before the swimming season begins! It is very common for students from the international schools to do multiple sports – with full support from their parents.
When I see such contrasting attitudes, it worries me. I am worried because this is just one manifestation of a systemic disease in Singapore's sports participation framework.
Singaporeans are pragmatic – we are goal-oriented and we monitor closely our key performance indicators (KPIs). We pay close attention to what is tangible and measureable, that is, medals and grades. Without fail, before each Major Games, the media will ask me, as President of Singapore Sailing, what is our medal target and whether we are on track.
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Do they ever ask me whether our sailors enjoy sailing, whether they are familiar with Singapore's rich maritime history, whether our sailors see sailing as a lifelong pursuit, whether they are inculcated with the desired values, or whether we have sailors who sail for reasons other than medals? I wish they did, because those are the pertinent questions that matter much more than the medals.
I would say that SNOC, MCCY and Sport Singapore have done a thorough job of reviewing our High Performance Systems over the years – from the Sports Excellence (SPEX) Programme in the 1990s, to the Committee on Sporting Singapore (CoSS), Project 08/12 Go For Gold and the Olympic Pathway Programme, to the current High Performance Sports (HPS) Programme. Through such comprehensive initiatives, our elite athletes have progressed to the point where we are winning Olympic medals and, last year, our sailors won Singapore's first two YOG Golds. On the academic KPI, we have done exceedingly well, topping the IB exams for the fourth consecutive year and achieving the best showing at the "O" levels in 20 years.
What we need to do now is to pay more attention to mass participation, where the results and benefits are less tangible. Yes, we had Sports for Life in the 1990s and the current Vision2030 master plan adopts a more holistic outlook and we have introduced ActiveSG. Nevertheless, there appears to be worrying trends emerging in our local sports culture. I highlight 10 of them.
One, Singaporeans are not exercising enough. The 2011 National Sports Participation Survey revealed that only 42% of Singaporeans exercised at least once a week, down from 50% in 2005. Compare this with Finland's enviable 76% in 2005. Participation levels fell amongst Singaporeans below 60 years of age, particularly those in their teens, which fell by 16% to 68%. This does not bode well for our future. On top of that, blue-collar workers recorded a larger decline in sports participation compared to professionals, managers, executives and businessmen (PMEBs).
Two, too many of our young are not enjoying sports. When I ask my patients from the local schools if they look forward to their school's Sports Day, I get a cynical look. When I ask a patient from UWC the same question, she said, "We all love it – it's so much fun!" She continues effusively, "Sports Day is run over three whole days and everybody participates and gets to try multiple sports. There're aquatics, games and athletics. We are rotated from one station to another and end up trying a lot of things. You don't need to be good and it is do-able for everyone!"
When young Singaporeans have a pleasant introduction to sports and physical activity, the exercise habit is likely to continue into adulthood and beyond. We need to review how we approach physical activity promotion across various groups, especially the young. We
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may have the best-laid policies and plans, but let us see how we can do better in bringing these to fruition.
Three, our motivation for being physically active is questionable. Do we do it because it is simply the natural thing to do or because it is part of our culture and tradition? Or do we participate in sports to accumulate CCA points or notch a higher level of attainment under the Leadership, Enrichment, Achievement, Participation and Service (LEAPS) 2.0 framework; for direct school admission (DSA); or for a shorter BMT?
In our international schools, the norm is to participate in at least one sport. Many participate or compete in multiple sports despite the fact that the international schools do not award CCA points. In fact, do we really treat sports as truly "co"-curricular? In January 2000, MOE acknowledged the integral role of co-curricular activities in achieving the desired outcomes of education by replacing the term extra-curricular with co-curricular. It is a work in progress and I look forward to more and more Singaporean parents – and, consequently, their children – adopting the right mentality, participating in CCAs for the right reasons.
Four, there are not enough opportunities to learn sports. Again, citing our international schools as an example, there are ample opportunities for their students. For each sport on the comprehensive menu of sports that they offer, there are teams of various levels, including beginners. Another one of my patients from an international school was not much of a basketballer when he enrolled in the school, so, he simply joined the novice team. As he got better, he progressed to team C then B and, eventually, ended up in team A.
Contrast that with our local schools where parents have told me that if you are not good enough for the school team, you are not offered a chance to participate in that sport at all. Take sailing for example. In the past, there were multiple entry-points into sailing. It did not matter if you did not start sailing in Primary school, you still had another chance to try out sailing in Secondary school and, if you missed that, there is still the Junior College and Polytechnic. Now, apart from the international schools, hardly any local school in Singapore will offer to teach you sailing. They accept only ready-made sailors.
I find this disappointing because a significant number of national sailors did a credible job of representing Singapore even though they started sailing relatively late. Stanley Tan and Stanley Chan got introduced to sailing through their Junior College. Stanley Tan went on to represent Singapore at two Olympic Games while Stanley Chan is a multiple Asian and SEA Games representative and medalist. Despite such success stories, their Junior College has since shelved their sailing programme.
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If our schools do not undertake to accept new entrants to various sports, there will be no future Stanley Tans or Stanley Chans. An FAS survey of 100 Primary schools earlier this year found that nearly one in two children wanted to play football, but only 5.9% of boys and 1.6% of girls were given a chance to.
Five, are our schools too focused on winning medals, at the expense of sports participation? Even school teams face the threat of being scrapped simply because they cannot achieve a podium finish. The 14 December 2014 issue of The Sunday Times cited a veteran football coach who said, "My principal said the football team will be scrapped if we don't reach the nationals tournament." Is winning the only thing that matters to our schools? While policies have shifted, how can we help the policy implementers put it right?
Six, Singaporeans are struggling with their fitness levels. A lecturer at one of our Polytechnics estimates that 70% of Polytechnic students fail their NAPFA test. Another lecturer at a different Polytechnic cited a failure rate of 60%-70%. Pre-enlistees struggle to get fit for NS and many NSmen struggle with their IPPT as well. MINDEF's recent simplification of the IPPT format and increased flexibility in the IPPT Preparatory Training (IPT) are steps in the right direction, as keeping the status quo will not yield better results.
Seven, reduced fitness levels, in turn, lead to increased obesity rates and a heavier burden of chronic diseases. Singapore's prevalence of obesity rose from 6.9% in 2004 to 10.8% in 2010 while diabetes rose from 8.2% to 11.3% in the same period.
Eight, our sports events can be more veteran-friendly. One is never too old to participate in sports and there is ample medical evidence that one can benefit from exercise even if one starts late. What message are we sending when Singapore's biggest marathon offers older runners only one age category, that is, the above-40 Masters category? Lumping a 60-year-old runner together with a 40-year-old in the same competitive category can only discourage the 60-year-old even before the race has started.
When I was at the International Sailing Federation meeting last November, there was naturally and understandably a lot of emphasis on youth sailing and how to attract young people to the sport. Hence, I was impressed with the insight of a windsurfing official who reminded the meeting that, in fact, the biggest market for windsurfing is actually the older age groups.
Nine, the physically challenged are still facing significant barriers to sports participation. For the disabled, sport offers a beacon of hope and is an important avenue for reintegrating into society. Desmond Tong lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident in 1999. After the accident, his life went into a tailspin, he dropped out of University, was ostracised by his
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friends and became depressed and suicidal. Through sports, he has since picked himself up and has been training diligently to do Singapore proud in the archery event of the ASEAN Para Games to be held in Singapore in December this year. His main obstacle now is not his missing leg, but the fact that he does not have a 70-metre range to practice after he finishes work on weekdays. Jason Chee, who lost both legs and his left arm while serving on a Navy ship in 2012, now represents Singapore in table tennis. Together with his doubles partner Darren Chua, he won a bronze medal for Singapore at the ASEAN Para Games last year. Jason is also now training hard for the next ASEAN Para Games. What is his number one obstacle? Jason says, "Transport to and from my training venue."
Dr William Tan, a long-time advocate for challenged athletes, added that, apart from permanent training venues and transportation, another major obstacle faced is funding. Dr Tan shared, "The financial support from the existing carding system is meagre for challenged athletes. Any financial support received goes mostly to transportation costs."
Ten, the struggle for recreational space, especially for sports, is escalating. Agencies like NParks, URA, PUB and SLA have been very progressive in optimising our shared spaces. As a result, we witness water sports in the heart of our CBD in Marina Bay itself, beautiful running tracks along our waterways, recreational activities on various reservoirs, and ciclovia – the closing of a section of Orchard Road to cars one evening a month in favour of pedestrians.
In a highly urbanised Singapore, there will always be challenges when it comes to sharing spaces. Take, for example, the constant struggle between cyclists and other road users or pedestrians. Last November, Eric Khoo, the organiser of the HolyCrit cycling race in Tanglin Halt explained that he did not seek permits from the authorities primarily because of an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 in compliance costs that is needed.
The sailing community could not continue its proud tradition of the popular Round Island Race because permits would not be granted. Maritime security and safety are certainly valid concerns, but we need to push the boundaries and take a leaf from others. If other countries were as conservative as us, there would be no Sydney Hobart Race or boating activities in the busy Sydney Harbour or San Francisco Bay.
Each of these points represents a major obstacle to Singaporeans adopting an active lifestyle. Collectively, they form a formidable barrier to sports participation. Each of these issues falls under the purview of a few agencies. This is reminiscent of the fishball stick anecdote that Prime Minister Lee shared at the last National Day Rally. I hope we would not need a sports equivalent of the Municipal Sports Services Office to systematically address these multifaceted challenges. But let us not wait till our obesity levels catch up with the West, or for our healthcare costs to creep further up, or for the pipelines to our national teams to run dry before we strengthen our resolve to address these emerging gaps in
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Singapore's sports participation.
Mr Deputy Speaker : Before I call Minister Lawrence Wong, I just want to let Dr Benedict Tan know that my favourite subject in school was Physical Education. Minister Lawrence Wong.
Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank Dr Tan for his observations and his suggestions to improve sports participation in Singapore. Dr Tan spoke of several emerging gaps in our sports participation and trends that he had noted of some concern in our sports culture. These were, in fact, surfaced in our extensive conversations when we did our Vision 2013 masterplan. That was a masterplan for sport. It was an exercise that we undertook in 2011.
I should highlight that when we had these conversations, while we heard many of these concerns, we also heard many positive things and one of the things that struck me when we had many of these conversations was that Singaporeans do continue to have a strong interest in sports. It is not just the people who had experiences in the past and reminiscence about the good old days.
Young Singaporeans, too, continue to have an interest in sports and there is nothing like sports that continue to excite us, that continue to stir our passions and bring our community together. You can certainly see that and sense that when you go for sporting events. There are many more in our calendar. They are all well attended and you can feel the excitement among the participants there at all of these events, be it a football game or say when we recently won the Asian Championships for netball in the New Singapore Sports Hub, the crowd was cheering for Team Singapore and the excitement was palpable.
So, I believe that many Singaporeans, young and old, continue to enjoy sports and they want to get involved in Sports. What they need are perhaps more opportunities to participate and to experience the joy of sports together. And that is why we launched ActiveSG last year as a national movement for sports. Through ActiveSG, we are bringing together a wider range of sporting programmes to the community, relevant for different skill levels and different age groups. For example, we partnered the Singapore Athletic Association to introduce kids athletics programmes, so they use modified equipment, such as lower hurdles, foam javelins to develop their motor skills. For seniors, we have weekly gym orientation programmes, we invite them to come to the gym, work out and we give them tips on how to use the gym equipment.
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I agree with Dr Tan that we must continue to find opportunities for older Singaporeans, active seniors, to engage in sports to stay healthy. When ActiveSG organised the Singapore National Games last year, we made a special effort to reach out and encourage many active agers to take part in the masters category of the game. One of them is Mr Mike Ang. I met him at the closing ceremony of the games. He and his teammates participated in futsal. They are alumni from St Michael's Secondary School and they have been crazy about football since the 1960s. So, they participated in football, said this was a good opportunity for them to relive their football days. They made it all the way to the quarter finals before they got kicked out but, even so, he said that if the match had been longer, his team would have won. Clearly, the competitive spirit is there and I am sure he will be back again for the next national games.
There are also many ActiveSG programmes that we are running to encourage busy Singaporeans to maintain an active lifestyle. We have something called urban trekking. I asked them what urban trekking is. It is basically walking, but you use walking poles, like ski poles. So, it is like Nordic walking for a full body workout. We introduced this at five sports centres and the response has been very good.
We are also organising more outdoor activities and that is why we launched Sundays at the Park, for example, to bring sports programmes to the neighbourhood green spaces, where they are convenient, where they are accessible to the public, especially the seniors. We started off with just four parks and now we have gone into 12. The programme is so popular at Choa Chu Kang Park that participation quickly increased from 50 in the first session to about 250 residents now.
These are some examples of what we are doing and have been doing, particularly after Vision 2013, the exercise we conducted in 2011. How do we know that these efforts, including the ActiveSG programmes, are making an impact? Well, I will share with the House some indicators.
First, ActiveSG has grown quickly and steadily in its membership. Less than a year after its launch, we already have more than 670,000 members today and these are not passive members. These are members who are actively using our sports centres and facilities and participating in the diverse range of ActiveSG events, from learn-to-play sessions to sports camps and workshops. For example, over the recent December holidays, ActiveSG organised an in-line skating competition at the Pasir Ris Sports Centre. This was a competitive event, but the parents we spoke to were less concerned about winning than being able to bond with their children.
One parent, Mr Ang Joon Hiang, was grateful for this opportunity to bond with his son, because they took part together in the father-son category and he requested for more of such family-friendly sport activities in the future. We see many such parents and children
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groupings coming together to participate in our programmes.
They are doing it not for medals. They are not doing it for CCA points or grades, but they are doing it because they enjoy the game. They have the opportunity to spend quality time together as a family. So, that is one indicator of a success.
Another indicator which I would share is that we are seeing a change in the numbers coming to our swimming pools as well as the profiles of people coming to our swimming pools. In the past, our swimming pools or swimming complexes were left very much for serious swimmers to come and then they swim laps. They do regular training in the swimming pools.
Now, we are putting together more fun and innovative programmes in the pools. We have aqua, basketball, we have aqua spinning; it is cycling in the water, so that there is less impact on your knees – very popular with the elderly. We have flippa ball, which is a modified form of water polo. It is a junior version, so it is good for the kids.
So, with all these programmes, we are seeing an increase in the number of people coming to the swimming pools and also a change in the profile. We are seeing more families spending their weekends at our swimming complexes. This reminds me of one of our sports pioneers, Mr C Kunalan, who told me when I launched ActiveSG last April that he hoped ActiveSG will kick start "a new trend of families having a sporty life instead of just spending weekends at the shopping centres."
Now, I do not want to cause more problems for the retail market, but I do believe we are making progress in shifting mindsets. If we continue with these efforts, we can shape new and positive habits towards sports participation.
The third indicator goes back to participation: we know from our surveys that the overall sports participation rate is, in fact, on the rise. Dr Tan cited the national sports participation survey in 2011 where he mentioned correctly that the proportion of Singaporeans who exercise at least once a week dropped to 42% and that was from 50% in 2005.
This national sports participation survey is done once every five years. So, the next one is in 2016, but in the interim years, in the years in between, we do some annual surveys, some annual dipsticks to get more updated data on sports participation. I am glad to share that our latest surveys for 2013 and 2014 show that the overall participation levels have, in fact, gone up to above 60%. We are not quite at Finland's level, which is about 70%, but we have made progress and I think we should continue to make progress. This is also consistent
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with anecdotal feedback. It is not just about the surveys because, as I have mentioned, if you look around you, besides what we are doing for ActiveSG, in recent years, there have been many more sporting events. The calendar is filled with many sporting events. The number of running events is on the rise. Apart from serious running events and marathons for the fitness buffs, you have many fun community runs, all of which are very well-subscribed.
Cycling is another sport that is gaining popularity very quickly. The number of participants in the OCBC Cycle Singapore doubled from 5,400 in its inaugural year, to 11,500 cyclists last year. This is more than double, actually.
These are several efforts of what we are doing to provide more programming opportunities and more opportunities for Singaporeans to participate in sports. We are seeing some results.
Besides these programming activities through ActiveSG, we are also doing more to address another concern that Dr Tan raised, which is to ensure that there are sufficient spaces and facilities for sports to be carried out, particularly, given our constraints of land. That is why I had announced previously in Parliament that we are working on a long-term sports facilities masterplan. We have five regional sports centres mapped out for this masterplan, the first of which is being built in Tampines. We are now planning for the next one in Punggol. There will eventually be five regional sports centres. At the town level, we are also adding new facilities and we are planning for a new sports and recreational centre, for example, in Sembawang. We are progressively improving our existing facilities, like the Ang Mo Kio Swimming Complex.
At the local level, that is, at the HDB estates, we are creating more sports facilities. We have started work on sports facilities within the precincts at Boon Lay, Jurong Spring and Tampines. We will gradually increase these sports facilities across Singapore, in tandem with the implementation of the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP), under MND. We are doing this in tandem with the NRP roll-out.
To make the most of our limited land space, we are also working with MOE to open up sports facilities in schools so that these can be made available for the public's use after school hours. These are what we call the Dual Use Scheme facilities. It is used for school purposes and for public sporting use.
We have already opened up many facilities. In fact, for new schools, we are ensuring that all new schools are built and designed with dual use in mind. So, sports facilities in all new schools will be designed for dual use. They will be implemented as such. For existing schools – close to half of them – already operate on this dual-use model. Our aim is to
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eventually open up all of the schools with dual use, so that the school sports facilities can be opened up to the public. This year, we are going to make further progress by putting out 15 more indoor sports halls and 10 more school fields.
Dr Tan also raised several observations about the role of schools in promoting sports participation. I do not intend to get into all the details here. Some of these are probably more relevant to be addressed at the school level. So, it is a very specific level, for very specific feedback. I want to assure the Member that my Ministry – MCCY – and MOE are working closely, together with Sports Singapore, to address all of the concerns.
The lesson time set aside for PE has been increased to at least two hours per week. MOE has also revised its PE and sports development framework in the past year to emphasise holistic development and to encourage lifelong participation in physical activities. So, the idea is to give students more opportunities to acquire fundamental motor skills, to gain exposure to a variety of sporting experiences and to participate recreationally in physical activities. Hopefully, many more of them would be like our Deputy Speaker and would be able to cite PE as their favourite subject in school.
Secondly, MOE has also replaced the CCA-point system with a revised co-curricular recognition system that places more emphasis on participation. The new system recognises participation in sports activities outside school, such as those organised by the community clubs and the National Sports Associations (NSAs). Under this new system, students who engage in recreational sports can also aspire to achieve good CCA records. Again, an important shift, because it addresses some of the concerns that the Member raised.
There are these things that MOE is doing. I would not elaborate further. We can share more and, if the Member has specific questions on MOE, we can address that separately.
I just want to go straight to a particular point on sporting opportunities for the disabled. This is a very important point that the Member raised and it is something close to our hearts as well. We want sports to be inclusive and we want to provide opportunities for all members of our society to participate in sports.
We have been providing more support for para-sports, for our athletes with special needs. In fact, we have enhanced our high performance sports system to provide more support to all athletes, including para-athletes. In our system, we provide equal support to both able-bodied and para-athletes. For example, we have an athlete like Laurentia Tan who
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is a paralympian, who today receives $90,000 of funding support a year. It is not just meagre support for transportation allowance. Ninety thousand dollars a year in the form of stipends and grants to support coaching, competition, equipment. We are providing more support for both able-bodied and para-athletes. It is not just financial support but support in many other areas. For a para-athlete like Nurul who plays boccia, she has spinal muscular dystrophy. She sits on a wheelchair and she takes a ramp to let the ball down to play bocce. We are working with Nanyang Polytechnic to do research on the design of the ramp so that, through research and development, we can improve the design and make it better for her. So, this is the support that we give to her.
Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would just say that this year presents us with a wonderful opportunity to further excite and inspire Singaporeans about sports participation because, this year, we host the SEA Games in June and we host the ASEAN Para Games, for the first time, in December. Of course, we are working very hard to make sure that we organise a good Games for our friends from the region, but we also want to make sure that we leave behind a lasting legacy for the Games, for Singaporeans. That legacy must be one where we get more Singaporeans onto our journey of sports, participating in sports, supporting our Team Singapore athletes and, ultimately, living better through sports.
*Question put, and agreed to.*
*Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."*
Adjourned accordingly at 6.25 pm.
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