A little write-up from Ex-Teacher Lee Seck Kay:
How's the
sports school doing? Ministry should have a report on
it
Your report 'RGS top girls' sports
school for third year' (ST, Sept 
should worry many parents and the Sports School
authority. It would seem that its students are far from being the
creme de la creme of sports expected of such an institution.
If the RGS girls can beat their counterparts in the Sports School
three years in succession, something must be wrong with its
delivery system. I wonder how its boys are doing when compared to
those in say, Chinese High or Raffles Institution.
With all its state-of-the-art facilities and top-notch coaches at
the disposal of students who were admitted because of their sports
talent, shouldn't they be setting new standards in sports for the
rest to emulate?
The Sports School was set up at high cost to enable students to
excel in sports without compromising their studies. One wonders to
what extent these measurable objectives have been achieved, and if
not, what are the obstacles and proposed actions?
It will not do if the Sports School eventually turns out to be no
better than schools such as those named above that never fail to
impress with their sports and academic performances.
The whole creative effort would have been in vain, let alone the
high costs involved and loss of credibility. In the years since its
inception in 2003, the Sports School must have established
milestones through both its sports and acdemic programmes,
achievements that could support its continued viability.
I suggest that the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and
Sports produce a report to highlight these and the institution's
standing vis-a-vis other schools.
This report should come out soon and as it would be of public
interest, it should be made freely available.
Lee Seck Kay
Reference
While Lee has posted some really good points that give pause for
thought, i believe he has marginalised the fact that SSS is already
producing some quality talents in Swimming, Sailing and
Fencing.
RGS has managed, on an overall basis, to maintain their
stranglehold on sports as
a whole, not individually. This means that
RGS is impressively consistent in all sports but not consistently
impressive in most of them. That is where the SSS outperforms their
rivals.
That fact that an elite school like RGS retains their sporting
prowess points to an underlying innuendo that indicates that while
our youth continue to excel at sports, their intrinsic goal remains
to get a first class education; and when that happens, sports will
have to take a back seat.
It is not the system that has 'failed', but rather the mindset and
stereotype of parents and youths alike, that still insist on a
recognized paper degree, first and foremost. That mindset will take
years to change.