I have participated in the second Current Affairs for Term 3 and played the role of a concerned parent.
The topic of the discussion is: School Sports, Is It Just A Game?
I will be sharing my views on this topic below.
Hope you guys justify what i have to say.
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I am here to voice out my concerns about school sports and most importantly, the safety of my child. I always ask myself, is it okay to let my child continue with his CCA? Is it safe to for him to continue participating so violently and uncontrollably in soccer? As a parent, my concerns have not been heard, and what is happening and what is going to happen in next training, I am worried.
Why are students working so hard for their sports CCA? “Daddy, I have a competition this weekend and I must clinch the gold medal and live up to my coach’s expectations.” This is what my son tells me whenever he feels stress from the competition weighing on his bare shoulders. Being parents, we are also stressed if our child is neglecting his studies. Is this what schools and coaches are driving at all the time? If that is, I think their driving towards the wrong target of just looking at results than the spirits of sports.
There have been many cases of serious/fatal accidents happening around us. Furthermore, these are accidents involving students, involving school sports.
School sports have been making headlines recently, but not all of them for the right reason.
Recently, a St Joseph's Institution student was hospitalised with head injuries after a judo match.
Last month, a Bedok Town Secondary School student was warded in the intensive care unit after a rugby match amidst allegations of foul play and punching. This shows the lack of sportsmanship.
This follows the death of a 17-year-old polytechnic student last July after he was kicked during a taekwondo tournament. Aren’t these accidents enough to prove that school sports are dangerous and vital? And as a parent, I think that the cause of these accidents is the school tending to fast-track their students without even developing their cognitive skills or their muscles, which leads to unnecessary injuries and accidents. Here is where my concern comes in. What is being taught to my child during his training? Is the coach just straining their physical strength and not teaching them the soft side of sports?
Even as a parent, I know that sports is not all about imparting hard skills to win competitions, to get nation-wide championships, it is about inculcating the soft skills that come with the game. There must be a great deal of respect in a sportsman. And that is what my child and all student sportsmen are lacking in. For example, a soccer player has to help his opponent up when he knock him down by accident. That is respecting his opponent. A soccer player has to be disciplined to take orders from the referee’s final decision. That is respecting the referee and his decisions. For example, Carlos Teves restrained himself from celebrating when he scored his first winning goal against his ex-soccer team. That is a whole amount of respect for his ex-team. That is what Singaporean youth sportsmen are lacking. I am afraid that schools are not doing their jobs and not imparting the right values and attitudes into fellow youth sportsmen and of course, into my child. That is my concern.
I also question about the safety issues both during training and competitions. Are safety measures put into place all the time? So far, I still do not know the training programme that my son is participating in school now. Is he being trained under the correct environment that will groom him up into a professional sportsman? When I say ‘correct environment’, I mean by whether a proper, qualified or experienced coach is present to facilitate the training? We are being kept in the dark about the coach’s background. Firstly, as I understand, not all coaches employed by the school are properly trained. Some are not even registered with the National Registry of Coaches. Also, the current system that craves for medals creates incentives for coaches to chase results, not build character or sportsmanship. This will definitely clinch competition prizes, but more injuries tend to occur. With more injuries sustained, who will share the medical bills for the injured? So my concern here is, is there a system that will not only achieve and strive for results, but also to minimize injuries sustained by athletes?
In conclusion, we concerned parents want to ask a simple favour from schools and coaches. Can we be informed of the training programme in order for us to monitor and witness happenings at training? I am sure that this will satisfy our demands for safety, as we parents’ first priority, and ensure us that our children are handled by the likes of experienced coaches. So that they will end up with the right sets of values, grow up with these values and approaches to sports and to life.
Cleon
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