I UNDERSTAND that the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in August next year will not coincide with the school holidays. In fact, it may happen during the time when students are studying hard for the final examinations.

I hope the YOG organising committee is aware of this and its implications. The timing was clearly fixed long ago at the international level. However, I believe it is not too late to tweak school programmes to encourage youth participation.

Learning from this year's Asian Youth Games in Singapore, where youth audience participation was below expectations, we should persuade more youngsters to attend the YOG by changing the holiday period to coincide with the event.

Ong Soon Yam

This article was first published in The Straits Times.