LETTERS:Having served as a sports teacher in both primary and secondary schools for the past 36 years, I have observed that about 60 per cent of over five million schoolchildren have keen interest in football and netball.
The remainder are involved in badminton, athletics, sepak takraw, martial arts, volleyball, handball, tennis, rugby, softball and squash.
National sports associations, in collaboration with the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM), have drawn up a year-long calendar of tournaments to cater for several age groups at district, state and national levels.
Despite more than two million schoolboys and girls playing football, the Malaysian national team continues to struggle against Asean minnows like Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar and Laos in international matches.
The Football Association of Malaysia and MSSM should reconsider their strategies, selection criteria and funding allocation to better support junior players' development and coaching programmes.
I believe both bodies can produce teams of Asian standard if they can efficiently channel the millions of ringgit from sponsors to deserving teams who are delivering results.
However, looking at the system in the schools, sports teachers and athletes are neglected.
Headmasters and principals tend to direct their co-curricular senior assistants and sports secretaries to start training their athletes only two to four weeks before a sports tournament.
These school heads, who mostly lack a sports backgrounds, consider sports meets as not material academic excellence.
They just want to quickly finish off the sports events in schools, with promotions and excellence service awards usually given to non-sports teachers.
Furthermore, they prevent teachers from serving at meets at the district, state and national levels, which are organised with the permission and funding of the Education Ministry.
Despite this, there are sports teachers who soldier on for the sake of their pupils, making sure their charges have proper nutrition during competitions and even helping them secure jobs when they leave school.
In addition, Physical and Health Education teachers often fail to guide inexperienced sports teachers, who may lack knowledge of rules or training methods in sports like football, badminton or athletics.
If we aspire to produce world- class athletes, I suggest former World number ones, such as Datuk Nicol Ann David and Datuk Lee Chong Wei, go to the primary schools near their homes to impart their knowledge at least once a week as a way to repay the millions spent on their training.
It should also be mandatory for all athletes who have donned our national colours at major games to guide sports teachers near their homes.
For example, the late Peter van Huizen and his brother Lawrence tirelessly coached hockey for their alma mater, St Paul's Institution, as well as Negri Sembilan men's and national women's teams from the 1960s to 1990s.
Scores of St Paul's Institution boys played in world championships and Olympiads under their guidance and made Malaysia proud.
These brothers emphasised that hearing our national anthem on foreign soil as the Malaysian flag was raised, with our national team standing on the winners' podium, was deeply statisfying.
We should organise more age group meets between Malaysia and Singapore, namely Under-12, Under-15, Under-18 and Under-21, to keep the keen rivalry alive and produce an steady supply of back-up players for our national teams.
The ultimate aim is not only for Malaysia to recapture the golden era of Malaysian sports from the 1950s to 1980s, but for continuous success.
MICHAEL CHENG
Seremban, Negri Sembilan
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times