National School Games for selected divisions to resume with 12 sports
The events, including badminton, shooting and gymnastics, have limited contact and intermingling
The National School Games (NSG) will resume on March 29 with sports that have limited contact and intermingling among participants, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced yesterday.
The competition, organised by the Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council and the Singapore Schools Sports Council, will be held for the A, B and senior divisions, and will end on May 27.
The games for the C and junior divisions are expected to resume in Term 3, which starts on June 28.
Last year's NSG was suspended twice after it began in January because of the Covid-19 pandemic and was subsequently cancelled.
This year's games were supposed to start last month.
The risk of transmission and new clusters of infection remain a concern even in phase three, said MOE.
"This is why MOE has tried to minimise the intermingling of students across schools and emphasised safe distancing measures in all our schools, to avoid any large clusters from breaking out.
"These are also the considerations for the calibrated approach in resuming NSG this year."
The 12 sports given the green light are badminton, bowling, golf, gymnastics, rope skipping, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo (poomsae), tennis, 3v3 volleyball and wushu.
Seventeen sports remain suspended as they involve "prolonged physical contact during the sport or intermingling among students from different schools throughout the competition", said the ministry.
These include football, basketball, hockey, swimming and water polo.
MOE said that for the upcoming NSG, appropriate safe management measures in line with national guidelines will be put in place.
For instance, a cap of eight players will be allowed to interact during the games.
Also, a maximum of 50 participants will be allowed in the venue at any one time, and each school must remain in its designated area to minimise intermingling among students across schools.
No spectators will be allowed.
For sports such as bowling, student-athletes will have to keep a minimum safe distance of 2m from one another. For net barrier sports, players must stay on opposite sides of the net.
MOE said it will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with the sports councils and the schools to ensure the safe conduct of NSG.
It added: "Should the situation evolve, we will review our plans in tandem with the national posture."
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