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Entering its second year, the sportACT Award Scheme, a subsidiary programme of the School Sports Programme funded by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), attracted about 270,000 students in this school year, more than double last year's 128,500 students.
The encouraging result was announced at a ceremony today (July 11) at Kowloon Park Sports Centre. The ceremony also launched the sportACT Summer Active Challenge, which extends the scheme to the summer holidays.
The champions and first, second and third runners-up of the Inter-school Easy Sports Competition, comprising 235 entries in 11 sports encompassing fencing, table tennis, badminton, mini-tennis, netball, cricket, handball, mini-volleyball, TRY rugby, dragon dance and basketball, were awarded at today's ceremony.
Under the sportACT Awards Scheme, gold, silver and bronze awards were presented according to the amount of time a student spent on sports within eight weeks – 30 hours for gold, 24 for silver and 18 for bronze.
A total of 370 schools with about 270,000 students have joined the sportACT Award Scheme. These schools have signed the charter and pledged to support their students to exercise and to help them achieve the goals they have set. The students will receive certificates/awards according to the targets they reached after having exercised for at least 18 hours within eight weeks.
When 25% or more of the students in a school receives sportACT awards, the school will receive an Active School Award. There were 97 schools awarded at today's event, representing a significant surge compared with the 48 schools last year.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hong Kong Childhealth Foundation, Dr Henrietta Ip, encouraged students to plan their sports activities and continue to exercise during the summer holidays and take part in the sportACT Awards Scheme.
Dr Ip noted that the awards acknowledged schools' efforts to advocate sports development and the effort made by students participating enthusiastically in sports. Dr Ip also congratulated the schools that had achieved the Active School Award.
Also officiating at today's ceremony were the Chief Curriculum Development Officer (Physical Education) of the Education Bureau, Mr Lai Yiu-keung, and the Chief Leisure Manager (Sports Development) of the LCSD, Ms Annie Lam.
Launched by the LCSD in 2001 to encourage primary, secondary and special school students to participate regularly in sports during their leisure time, the School Sports Programme consists of seven subsidiary programmes: the Sport Education Programme, Easy Sport Programme, Sport Captain Programme, Outreach Coaching Programme, Joint Schools Sports Training Programme, Badges Award Scheme and sportACT Award Scheme.
Ends/Friday, July 11, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:47
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