A sporting nation is built on the bedrock of both mass participation and talent development. That’s why Red Sports was excited by Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew’s speech yesterday, which gave a fillip to both.

First, MOS Lui announced extensions to the Sports Education Programme (SEP). Up to now, SEP has encouraged sporting interest by endorsing and funding events and courses at the introductory and recreational level. The category names – Sports Exposure and Sports Play – pretty much say it all. Going forward, two new categories will be added. Sports Development will support advanced-level courses, while Sports League will support intra-school competitions.

Second, MOS Lui announced the setting-up of Junior Sporting Academies. These will be centralised efforts to identify and train sporting talent, and housed at various schools. The plans so far are to establish the academies for netball, swimming, table tennis and track and field at the Singapore Sports School, the table tennis academy at the Singapore Table Tennis Association, the wushu academy at Chung Cheng High Main, and the badminton academy at Henry Park Primary School. That’s 7 academies for 2008, and MOS Lui forsees up to 16 academies for about 1000 primary school athletes.

Whether you are an aspiring athlete, a parent, a coach or an industry player, it’s news that should warm your heart and fire your belly. We at Red Sports say, Always Game!

Read MOS Lui’s full speech by clicking here.