I think all of us know that.
There's no money to be made. Kids are told they can't rely on it for a living, and more often than not, it's true.
And yet, the Gov, says that they want to nurture some form of sports and have some medals under SG's belt.
Actually, for me, I think it's really easy to encourage private investments into the SG sports scene.
Don't think it's easy?
Well...
Just allow sports to be counted towards National Service.
Of course there needs to be rules when doing this.
Example... This is an EXAMPLE of what I think could work.
If a child/teenager is showing good potential for sports, ie, win certain regional level competitions, then allow them to defer NS.
So like, if a kid is showing good potential at age 18, then allow them to defer NS.
If the kid keeps improving, then allow deferment until maybe 21.
IF the kid qualifies for an international competition like the Olympics, then grant a further exemption, maybe until 23.
IF the kid wins the competition, maybe only gold counts, maybe gold, silver, bronze counts... whatever.
Then grant the kid full exemption from NS.
Otherwise, the kid will still need to serve NS like everyone else. So if they win, then they get full exemption.
Else, they only get deferment.
So what would happen?
Well, I think there would definitely be more males suddenly interested in sports.
They'd at least want to try to do somewhat well.
If they have no potential, which is maybe 95% of us, we go into NS as per normal.
4.9% might be deferred at different times and ages as they show progress or fail to show progress.
And maybe 0.1% might win something. And seriously, I'd "give it to them" that they have served NS, by putting SG on the map and making everyone proud.
Then there's those situations for team sports, like what if some kids gets drafted into Newcastle and can't win any medals. Well... then too bad, the most they can get is deferred.
I'm sure there would be many many kids who would want to try to get themselves deferred or fully exempted from NS. Parents would be willing to dump money on their kid's training.
There is now a big incentive, for males at least, to invest in private training to excel in sports.
There's really going to be only a handful who might get fully exempted. I mean seriously. Look at the numbers.
On 3 Jan 2021.
This is ALL TIME. Means the total that the country has won through history.
So... Really, there's only going to be a handful of males who will get fully exempted.
China with 1.4 billion population has won an average of 50 medals, per year, over 10 Olympics. 50 medals per year, not 50 gold medals. They've won an average of 20 gold medals per year over 10 Olympics.
And I sure as hell, don't think SG could ever get close to 50 medals a year.
Even those deferred will just be a handful, it's not like everyone will suddenly show promise in sports just cos there's this new opportunity to be deferred.
We could even do this for the arts scene. But that's a lot harder as it's harder to quantify.
But it's probably possible to also put in some kind of grading and regional/international grading so as to determine if a kid is able to make it on the world stage.
And once again, there's going to be many who try, and only a handful who really succeed.
And as for the rest, they go and serve NS like everyone else.
So why not right?
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