TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Parents concerned about children's future as athletes
Parents of young athletes have questioned the governmentâs commitment to the future of their children if they take sports as a career path
Change Size
P
arentsof young athletes have questioned the government's commitment to the future oftheir children if they take sports as a career path.
'My child is a good badminton player, but his school does not accept him focusing more on the sport. I want him to get a good education. What can the government do?' a parent asked Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo at the opening of the junior badminton tournament Sidu Cup grand final on Tuesday.
Another parent said that he would like to see his son become a badminton athlete but was afraid that the boy would not have a good future.
Roy said that the government was trying to cooperate with schools to give places to athletes and he would try his best to make sure an athlete got a proper education.
'Athletes must get an education. It is important because once an athlete passes the golden age, he still can have a secure life,' said Roy, adding that he expected athletes to at least finish senior high school.
However, he said the program was only run in Jakarta while the government was trying to develop it in other cities.
Currently, an athlete school in Ragunan, South Jakarta, accommodates young, promising athletes at the junior and senior high levels.
'We have made an agreement with the Open University [UT] to facilitate athletes. Now we are trying to work on the senior high school level,' he said.
Eighty children are scheduled to compete in the Sidu Cup 2013 grand final on April 16-17 to take home the Gita Wirjawan Cup.
The competition leading up to the Cup was sponsored by Asia Pulp and Paper and was participated in by 9,500 elementary and junior high schoolchildren over 12 months. (idb/nvn)
