[ad_1]
16-year-old Joanna Lee had never ridden a bike before arriving at the Pasir Ris Sports Center yesterday.
Nor were the other 50 students at St Anthony’s Canossian High School who, like her, were participating in a six-hour learn to bike course run by the Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF), on how to ride. cycling around a circuit.
The course is the most basic of SCF’s Cycle Safe program, which has been approved as a sports education program by Sport Singapore and the Ministry of Education.
These programs are aimed at the development of sports skills and knowledge of students.
This means that schools can now use Sport Singapore’s matching grant of up to $ 10,000 to adopt the Cycle Safe program.
With its four skill levels, Cycle Safe is the premier local amateur cycling accreditation program for students. It also has a trainer course for physical education coaches and instructors.
Cycle Safe complements the government’s efforts and investments in a lightweight car company, the cycling federation said in a statement on Monday.
Yesterday, SCF instructors began with a safety briefing, showing students how to properly put on equipment, such as helmets and knee pads, and introducing basic traffic signs along bike paths.
Many seemed nervous at first, making timid attempts to step on their pedals, but by the time the course was halfway through, they were laughing and smiling as they rode the circuit with confidence.
At the end of the day, they had to take a proficiency test, in which 18 of the participants obtained the Learn-to-Cycle certificate and 33, a higher level 1 certificate.
Joanna admitted to being “a little scared” at first but ended up having fun. When asked if she would cycle regularly from now on, she replied, “Maybe with friends.
Food and nutrition teacher Ms Nur Taib, 28, said she would encourage other schools to adopt the Cycle Safe curriculum. She said cycling is an important life skill. “In the future, they may want to teach it to their children.
SCF Sporting and Technical Director Samuel Yang hopes that through this initiative Singapore will be able to foster a “mature environment” where cycling is commonplace, as it is in many other countries. like Denmark, where parent volunteers teach children to ride a bicycle.
Such a culture did not yet exist in Singapore, he said.
“We plan to reach more schools with assembly talks,†he said. The federation hopes to train at least 2,000 new riders this year.
The SCF issued 500 certificates to amateur cyclists as part of the program and another 300 to coaches.
Besides the Cycle Safe program, other cycling interest groups, such as Love Cycling SG, run workshops for those who already have basic cycling skills.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) also has a Safe Cycling program for students with cycling skills, on traffic awareness and road safety.
The LTA also plans to roll out a new 90-minute safe driving program in some schools and worker dorms starting in July.
[ad_2]
