By Goh Yi Han, Yeo Sam Jo & Rachel Au-Yong

MR THOMAS Quek, 21, thought his daily 24-lap swim was enough to keep him fit.

But the third-year Republic Polytechnic student failed to attain a silver award at his National Physical Fitness Award (Napfa) test last October.

A poor 2.4km run timing pushed him into the bronze category - and into a club of young men who will begin National Service (NS) earlier than those who managed at least a silver.

This group will be in for a special training programme for recruits who have failed to meet fitness standards. Called the Physical Training Phase (PTP), it is intended to prepare them for the tough nine weeks of Basic Military Training (BMT) that follows.

The multimedia student, resigned about spending extra time in the army, is among many final-year male polytechnic students with a Napfa problem. Last year, seven in 10 such students failed to get at least a silver in the Napfa test.

Have male polytechnic students have gone soft?

A Straits Times poll of 100 final-year male students, aged between 20 and 23, found that 74 said they exercised or played sports at least once a week.

But only 56, or slightly over half of them, had achieved a Napfa silver award or better.

Many of those polled attributed the numbers, at least in part, to a lack of compulsory Physical Education (PE) lessons in polytechnics.

Pass rates are significantly higher among their junior college (JC) counterparts, most of whom do PE at least once a week. About 75 per cent of graduating male students at JCs, who are two to three years younger on average, have managed to attain a silver award or better over the past five years.

Public attention was recently drawn to the fitness level of army recruits.

In Parliament last month, Second Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, said the PTP would be increased to eight weeks from the current four, from December this year.

Dr Ng said the move would allow for a more uniform level of fitness among recruits at the start of BMT.

'Four weeks of PTP does improve their physical performance, but many still do not reach the same level of fitness compared to their peers who were enlisted directly for BMT,' said the minister.

Sports experts confirmed that even students who play sports regularly could still fail to do well at the Napfa.

'The Napfa is a balanced test which measures several different aspects of fitness,' said Dr Patrick Goh of SportsMed Central at Gleneagles Hospital.

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