Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law
Mr Don Wee, MP, Chua Chu Kang GRC and Advisor to ITE’s UITS
Mr Xie Yao Quan, MP, Jurong GRC
Dr Lim Zi Xuan, Delane, President, Tchoukball Association of Singapore
Mr Low Jwee Poh, CEO, Mr. Bean
Distinguished Industry Partners
ITE Colleagues and Students
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Introduction
It gives me (and all of us) much excitement and joy to be here at this morning’s flag presentation and the MOU signing between ITE and the Tchoukball Association of Singapore.
When the news broke in Singapore in January last year that our Singapore Women Tchoukball Team is ranked World No. 1 and our Men Tchoukball Team was ranked World No. 3, many of us, ordinary Singaporeans, were delighted but we were also bewildered and also asked, “What is Tchoukball?” I am sure there was a surge in google-search and you tube search! Tchoukball has become a ‘hit’ and everyone is talking about the game!
This interest-generation moment is so significant that in various strategic and management meetings, we asked ourselves how to create such high public interest (e.g. Worldskills competitions or ITE’s Work-Study Diploma), we asked if we could create something similar to this Tchoukball overnight sensational interest moment.
ITE’s Tchoukball Programmes and Talents
ITE students are passionate about Tchoukball. They pursue this game in their PE lessons as well as through the CCAs. We started to collaborate with TBAS in 2022 and our students have had the opportunity to interact with the National Women and Men Teams and experience first-hand professional training at a superlatively competitive level.
We discovered ITE has many Tchoukball talents!
Collaboration Opportunities
ITE and TBAS will jointly expand our efforts to scout and groom local talents. We would go beyond the current POLITE (Polys & ITE) and Inter-Tertiary Championships (ITC) tchoukball competitions to jointly organize more Tchoukball tournaments and Community Outreach programs to promote the sport and identify talents.
The ITE coaching team and students will also learn from and collaborate with the TBAS coaching team to infuse relevant GPS technology, fitness tracking devices, and data analytics into our training sessions to improve players’ fitness, game strategy, and tactics.
Conclusion
In closing, I wish to express my appreciation to Tchoukball Association of Singapore for formally committing to partner with ITE through this MOU signing. Together, let us raise Tchoukball to greater heights of achievements at the world stage and fire the national pride and unity of all Singaporeans.
My best wishes to all the National athletes representing Singapore in the upcoming Tchoukball Championship and competitions!
Thank you