Thursday, June 03, 2004
From TODAYonline:
Within weeks of Acting Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's public comment that Singapore youths were too "soft", the Ministry of Education has taken the step of rewarding participation in more "rugged" co-curricular activities (CCA).
On Tuesday, Mr Tharman — a former hockey, football and cricket player — said that "sports and other rugged activities" would train children to cope with frequent and often unpredictable challenges that call for more than academic ability.
The revised CCA points scheme, which gives students up to two extra CCA points for taking part in a sport, aims to arrest the alarming drop in secondary school sports participation from 80 per cent in the 1990s to about 41 per cent now.
What more must it take for this government to realize that system changes do not necessarily construe reforms towards approved character developments in our youth? By all means go forth and reward participation in select leisure (repeat, leisure) activities. Parental peer pressure might do the trick, indeed rugged sports could be the next big thing. No kidding, so it is really only here in this island-state that taskforces, acronymned committees and politicians' edicts rule lives transform behaviors towards chosen paths deemed right by ageing men in short-sleeved white shirts and neatly-pressed matching trousers.
Within weeks of Acting Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's public comment that Singapore youths were too "soft", the Ministry of Education has taken the step of rewarding participation in more "rugged" co-curricular activities (CCA).
On Tuesday, Mr Tharman — a former hockey, football and cricket player — said that "sports and other rugged activities" would train children to cope with frequent and often unpredictable challenges that call for more than academic ability.
The revised CCA points scheme, which gives students up to two extra CCA points for taking part in a sport, aims to arrest the alarming drop in secondary school sports participation from 80 per cent in the 1990s to about 41 per cent now.
What more must it take for this government to realize that system changes do not necessarily construe reforms towards approved character developments in our youth? By all means go forth and reward participation in select leisure (repeat, leisure) activities. Parental peer pressure might do the trick, indeed rugged sports could be the next big thing. No kidding, so it is really only here in this island-state that taskforces, acronymned committees and politicians' edicts rule lives transform behaviors towards chosen paths deemed right by ageing men in short-sleeved white shirts and neatly-pressed matching trousers.
