New Rugby Enrichment Pilot Programme Helps Students Learn Essential Life Skills

New Rugby Enrichment Pilot Programme Helps Students Learn Essential Life Skills

ActiveSG today announced the launch of a new rugby enrichment programme for schools. Under this new pilot programme, students will not only learn the right techniques to tackle an opponent safely, but will also be directly taught essential skills to tackle life.

Developed in collaboration with SportCares Foundation and Singapore Rugby Union (SRU), the pilot programme uses rugby as a vehicle to improve the students’ social skills including problem-solving and goal-setting. With enhanced personal skills, these students can become better performers: interacting well with peers, respecting rules and having greater self-esteem.

Being the first secondary school to join this programme, East Spring Secondary School will see 14 students participating in weekly rugby trainings. Principal of East Spring Secondary, Mr Teoh Teik Hoe, believes that this rugby programme will give students opportunities to develop their character, in addition to staying active and healthy.

Mr Teoh says: “The rugby enrichment programme is a good sport education platform that supports student-development in resilience and confidence. In addition to building relationship management skills, the programme teaches students to exercise self-discipline and make responsible decisions. This programme appeals to the interest of the students. I want my students to enjoy sports and at the same time, learn school values such as responsibility, integrity and resilience that will help them to move ahead in life.”

Says Mr Lim Teck Yin, CEO of Sport Singapore, “The values students learn from rugby are not just restricted to playing the game. They also inspire students to perform their best in school and in life. The popularity of rugby has grown among schools as it is good fun and good exercise in its own right. This new rugby programme allows students of all capabilities to get together and play, have fun and develop their skills. The input by Singapore Rugby Union makes sure that our students will be getting the best experience of the game.”

Mr George Danapal, General Manager of SRU, hopes that the introduction of the new programme will ignite a greater interest in rugby among young people. “Schools have a key role to play in getting young people into sports like rugby. And the Singapore Rugby Union is very happy to be here supporting the work being done by SportCares to encourage more young people into the game. It is our vision to use rugby as a tool to unify our community and we hope to introduce the programme to other non-rugby playing schools in the near future,” he says.