Summary of the article: In many schools nowadays, students are not exposed to various kinds of sports and are hardly taught anything related to sports like for example, techniques and methods to play. The writer of the news article feels that students should be exposed to sports more often for them to discover their talents in certain areas.
I agree with the writer of the article that students should be exposed to more kinds of sports, but only to a certain extent. Discovering hidden talents is indeed important in a student's life as it could help him to earn achievements and get a career in the aspect that he/she is good in. However, I feel that this should not be done during PE lessons. The main purpose of PE lessons is to give students a chance to a take a break from their academic routine and also help keep them physically fit. Also, most PE lessons of various schools in Singapore are more focused towards the NAPFA test so most of the PE lessons would be used up to train students for it. PE lessons are usually conducted once a week so there would be hardly enough time to discover new talents. All that have been said in this paragraph, however, only applies to secondary schools.
On the other hand, primary schools do indeed help students discover their talents. During primary school life, there would be around 3 hours of PE Lessons per week on the average, with exception to the examination period. Also, the workload during primary school level is not as hectic as compared to secondary schools so primary school students would have more time to come into contact with various sports. I believe that PE teachers in primary school, do teach students how to play various sports like basketball and soccer. Through this, students would be exposed to different kinds of sports and also be able to discover the talent that they have in that certain area. Thus, students are already exposed enough in primary school level.
Many teachers and parents in Singapore are more academically-focused. They regard primary school level as the exploratory stage and secondary school level as the developing stage. Hence, to achieve a win-win situation (More academic time and physical education time), Co-curricular activities have been introduced to help students develop their talents. In primary school, students would discover their talents in certain areas and when they graduate to secondary school, they would join a COMPULSORY co-curricular activity for them to further develop their talents in that area. Also co-curricular activities are held after school, usually from 1 to 3 times per week and students would thus, be able to manage their academic work and keep physically fit at the same time. Hence, win-win situation is achieved.
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