SINGAPORE - As a physical education lecturer and women's football team coach at ITE College East, Ratna Suffian believes strongly in using sport as a teaching tool.

Upon realising that he could not accommodate more players in the team, he decided to set up a second team to offer more playing opportunities.

A former professional footballer who had stints at S-League clubs like Home United and Balestier Khalsa, Ratna said: "Women's football is a growing sport. We have more and more players coming up. At school level, it's been increasing so I try to give everyone an equal chance."

He also coaches the combined ITE team that competes in tournaments like the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education Games.

"If they're not good enough at the moment, at least there's some place to develop themselves," said Ratna, 42.

"It's a pathway for some of the girls. Some whom I've coached at ITE before get better and eventually get selected for Under-19 or national team so good to see some progression."

His efforts were recognised as one of eight recipients of the Outstanding Teacher-Coach Award (OTCA) given out by the Singapore Physical Education Association on Tuesday (Nov 30). It recognises the contributions teacher-coaches have made in their respective sports.

Two teachers were also presented with the Outstanding Physical Education Teacher Award, introduced in 1996 to enhance the professionalism of the physical education fraternity, and to encourage PE teachers to raise their level of practice.

Another OTCA recipient was PE teacher Don Zhang. He was one of three teachers who helped set up Yuying Secondary School's futsal team in 2018, as part of the Ministry of Education's Gear-Up after-school programme for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Futsal is not an official co-curricular activity (CCA) at Yuying, which means students attend the weekly training sessions on top of their usual CCA commitments.

On why they started Freestylers, Zhang, 34, said: "We wanted to have a platform whereby teachers could personally come down to the sessions to build relationships with the students outside of curriculum time, which I think is very important."

He is also the teacher in charge of the school's sepak takraw CCA, and his fellow teachers also make the effort to mentor the students outside of these sessions.

Zhang said: "I told the other teachers that this was what the programme was all about - building bridges in school and at home, restoring relationships and truly uplifting the child.

"What we hope to do is help the students experience little breakthroughs in their lives, which they can also transfer back to the classrooms."