SINGAPORE: The Singapore Sport Institute (SSI), National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) and Singapore Sports School (SSP) will be consolidated into a single entity to house all dedicated sports institutions under one umbrella.
Minister for Culture, Community, and Youth Edwin Tong announced this in parliament on Monday (Mar 10) as he laid out the ministry’s spending plans for the year.
SSI, Singapore’s premier training centre for national athletes, and NYSI, a sporting organisation that aims to drive youth development, will be integrated next month. This new entity will then combine with SSP in “a few years’ time”, added Mr Tong.
He said that the SSP will remain as a school and retain its “brand and identity”.
“This consolidation will more closely integrate Sports School with the rest of the high performance sporting ecosystem. We will also streamline touch-points with stakeholders involved throughout an athlete’s life, such as parents and NSAs (National Sports Associations),” he added.
“We will then be able to develop a centrally coordinated pathway that can provide better visibility and assurance to our athletes.”
In an accompanying factsheet, the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth (MCCY) said the move will streamline functions performed by the three institutes, into a more integrated and effective “youth-to-senior support framework” to enhance “service delivery” to athletes.
“SSP’s mission of providing academic pathways and support to student-athletes will remain unchanged,” said MCCY.
The consolidation will provide a seamless and comprehensive support system for athletes throughout their sporting journey, the ministry added.
It will also strengthen partnerships with National Sports Associations (NSAs) on athlete and pathway development.
All Team Singapore athletes will continue to receive their current level of support by NYSI and SSI following their consolidation into the new sport institute. No retrenchments in any of the organisations are expected.
