SINGAPORE - The National School Games will resume on Monday (March 21), beginning with four boys' B Division tennis matches.
Only the tennis fixtures were available on the NSG website yesterday but the Ministry of Education earlier said it has plans for the NSG to resume across all divisions - A, B, C, Junior and Senior.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, it said on Friday all 29 sports will take place and that safe management measures aligned with national guidelines will be in place.
Last year, the only team sports in the NSG programme were three-a-side volleyball and sepak takraw.
But this year, all team sports will make a return in their respective standard formats, except rugby which will be played in a sevens format instead of 15-a-side.
This is in line with the latest guidelines from Sport Singapore that allow up to 30 fully vaccinated people to participate in sports activities.
Students must be fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 recently to take part.
MOE added: "Unvaccinated students and those who are medically ineligible for vaccination may participate in NSG, depending on their age group and the type of sport.
"For example, students aged 12 and below may participate in sports that can be conducted within the national group size limit of five regardless of vaccination status."
Similar to last year, some sports will be played only at the zonal level "in view of the shorter competition season". This list of sports has not been finalised.
The ministry also added that calibrations such as rolling substitutions, a reduction in playing time and increased rest intervals will be considered to help the athletes ease back into competition safely.
The Games had been halted and cancelled when the pandemic first broke out in 2020.
It resumed last year a month after its original start date with just 12 sports before being suspended and then axed again after a spike in community cases.
After two years of no competition, sprinter Isabella Charlotte Grosvenor is nervous about racing again.
The CHIJ Katong Convent Secondary 4 student said that with a lot of the training conducted online during the pandemic, "everyone was very stressed when we first heard it was resuming... because it takes time to get everyone prepared".
Nonetheless, she is hoping the track and field competition does not clash with her mid-year exams, adding: "I'm definitely looking forward to the Games. I miss the adrenaline rush I get when I'm competing and meeting a lot of my friends from different schools."
