KUALA LUMPUR: Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has encouraged parents to conduct background checks on coaches before sending their children to train under them.
Yeoh said many of the 38 cases that have been reported to the ministry's Misconduct and Protection in Sports Committee between 2021 until this year involved coaches.
From the 38 cases, 12 coaches were reported for various issues.
"Many cases involved coaches from the national, state to association level," said Yeoh today.
"At the National Sports Institute (NSI) level we have already started conducting background checks, together with the police, to ensure that the coaches are safe (to train athletes).
"There may be parents out there who are looking for coaches to train their children, especially as there is now tax relief for this.
"They may be looking at coaches from the private sector and so on. We ask that they conduct some background checks before proceeding.
"We are currently strengthening the whole (sports) ecosystem to ensure a safe environment for all."
Yeoh has placed a strong emphasis on promoting a safe and more conducive environment for everyone involved in sports and in March last year launched the Safe Sport Code to serve as a clear guideline.
She was speaking after officiating the closing ceremony of the National Women in Sports Seminar in Subang Jaya today.
Yeoh said the objective of the two-day seminar was to encourage greater women participation in sports administration.
"This was the first time we have had this seminar at the national level and over 200 people attended this programme," said Yeoh.
"The objective of this seminar is to create more women sports administrators to be involved in national sports associations. This is to ensure that decisions made (by NSAs) are inclusive."
Yeoh added that the percentage of women board members at the ministry level has increased from 19 per cent in 2022 to almost 30 per cent today.