THE Education Ministry has dropped a bombshell just eight days into the new year by slashing the annual allocation of RM6mil to RM1.5mil to the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM), thus forcing the council to cut down on the number of sports in the calendar.
Until last year, the Education Ministry had provided RM6mil annually to the MSSM. A total 24 sports, catering for the Under-12, Under-15 and Under-18 were under the programme.
However, with a tight budget this year, the MSSM had to restrict the number of sports to only 13.
They are artistic gymnastics, gymrama, golf, swimming, athletics, badminton, netball, basketball, volleyball, sepak takraw, football, tennis and hockey. On top of that, all the sports, except for artistic gymnastics, gimrama, swimming and athletics, will not have the Under-15 age group.
This brings forth the second blow to the sports fraternity.
Prominent sports like bowling, squash and archery have been axed from the programme. These are the sports that have put Malaysia on the world map through current world squash champion Datuk Nicol David, Malaysia’s first professional bowler Shalin Zulkifli and archer Cheng Chu Sian won the recurve individual gold at the recent Laos Games.
Archery is also included in the ambitious Road to London programme targeted for the 2012 Olympics.
The others given the chop are table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball, cross country and chess.
According to an official, many were caught by surprise when informed of the decision to drop the 11 sports.
“The MSSM officials explained that the Education Ministry had reduced the annual budget.
“With the drastic cut in finance, it is not possible to organise all 24 sports,’’ said the official.
However, all state education department sports units were advised to organise the sports that are not in the MSSM calendar at the school, district and state level.
“But this suggestion is not practical as the state will have to source for sponsorship,” the offical said.
Another problem is that the Education Ministry sports awards for 2010 will only be confined to athletes involved in the sports in the MSSM.
“Then there is also the 10 merit points allocated to students to gain entry in universities. The students, active in the 11 sports not in the MSSM, will lose the 10 merit points and this jeopardises their chances.
More importantly, the MSSM’s decision has demoralised a lot of teachers who have been involved in sports,’’ said the official.
Despite the financial constraints, the MSSM have accepted the responsibility to host the Asean Schools Sports Carnival in July.
The carnival, involving all 13 sports in the MSSM calendar, will be held in the Klang Valley. It is learnt that Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have been entrusted to host the events.
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