S’pore Sports School Decides Competition Winnings Should be Given to Them Instead of Student-Athletes, Parents Not Happy At All

By
Wen Xianda
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In the past few months, Singapore Sports School revised a clause in their Sports Handbook over the distribution of prizes won by their students.

According to the revised clause, the prize winnings, which can include money or products, are to be given to the school starting this year, whenever a student wins an award representing the school.

Previously, prizes were given to the students, as long as the winnings were clearly awarded to the student and not the school.

Parents are livid that this change did not go through any consultation with them.

It certainly doesn’t seem to make much sense, if the student had won a competition, had an award clearly given to them, then have everything taken by the school. If the student won a shirt, or sports equipment, or even anything with their name on it, the school wants it.

Come on.

Parents have been meeting with school officials to voice their concerns, and the school principal had told them that money should not be a motivation for the student-athletes.

Is that right, Mr Principal? Why don’t you do your work for free then, since you’re supposed to be motivated by the passion for teaching students as well?

The awards given in competitions are token, compared to the resources their parents spend. Even if there was any monetary motivation, it would be to offset some of the costs. If the students were motivated by money, they’d be doing something more stereotypical, like medicine or law.

This revision can be rather confusing as well.

Last I checked, the government (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) had been trying to make Singaporeans more active, promote sports in youths and inspire a more active society. Training student-athletes to win competitions, then taking their awards doesn’t seem very inspiring to me.

The prize monies are apparently to be used in the school’s programmes which can include local and overseas training and competition. According to the parents, however, they themselves bear a significant portion of the costs for overseas competitions.

This all seems very hypocritical. Where is the money going? Why were the parents not consulted? If it shouldn’t be about money, why are you taking it from us? School fees not enough ah?

No wonder Joseph Schooling was sent to the US to train, instead of training in Singapore.

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Wen Xianda
Email: [email protected]