Singapore's Olympic Education Programme

National Education, Olympic Education, what's the next WAYANG programme?

Yours truly was unfortunately in a pilot programme for the introduction of the National Education Programme. No thanks to that, me and my comrades were encumbered by up to an extra 2 hours a week to listen to propaganda. In later years, Social Studies even became a compulsory subject in school exams in Singapore. Like school hours weren't long enough.

It's like one of those things where you learn more about something to dislike that something. You just can't force it. Have a National Education musuem, and leave it as that. Maybe hand out flyers or broadcast this to students in school assemblies. No one likes strong-arm techniques. Neither did we enjoy national heritage tours. Some will always be rebels. Like me.

Olympic Education! How daft. Just because Youth Olympic Games is around the corner. Chief aim? One can assume its to be better hosts next year for the games. In plainer words, to make our young sportsfans. Not sportsmen. You want more sportsmen, then make specialized sport a subject throughout education years. Never ever let our young think that "it's time to get real, study hard and get good grades and get a good job". That's happening right now! I'm so frustrated. Singapore produced so many world-beaters in international Olympiads, in international sports meets, but what happened after Secondary School level, JC level? Where have they gone? Why have we come to such a sorry end that we had to make up for our lack of sports talent and sports diversity by having a largely table-tennis and badminton contingent?

Educate Singapore's parents. Not the kids. Kids will know about sports and develop interest in it. Parents on the other hand have got to stop being such prudes as to think that their kids are wasting time pursuing a sporting career. Professional sportsmen are highly respected in other parts of the world. Not here. If you tell someone here that your profession is "athlete", they'll look at you like they said the worst swear word.

Scrap all this stupid programmes and let our kids learn and develop naturally.