Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim will develop regulations to help young athletes focus on developing their talents and mastering their sports.

"Sports talent have to be nurtured from a very young age to achieve world-class achievements," he said at the Vice President’s Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday after attending a meeting on the Great Design of National Sports (DBON) implementation, which was chaired by Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.

His ministry will also increase the frequency and quality of the implementation of sporting competitions since without such competitions, it will be hard to assess the “fighting spirit” of the athletes.

"Many people have sporting talent, but they do not have a strong fighting spirit. Thus, competitions must be held to select the best talents," he remarked.

Furthermore, the ministry will prepare the required infrastructure in schools to bolster sports enthusiasm among students.

"In addition, it is important to develop the human resources in the sporting sector,” the minister said.

Sports teachers must understand sports science and proper nutritional intake for students, he added.

The ministry is committed to pushing schools to build a healthy and competitive sports culture, he emphasized.

He said he expected the implementation of the Freedom in Learning (Merdeka Belajar) Curriculum to accommodate various sports learning activities.

Makarim further said that sports are a great medium to instill Indonesia’s five principle values of ‘Pancasila’ in students, which is also the aim of the Merdeka Belajar Curriculum.

"Through sports, we learn to strive, be tough, work together, help each other, as well as have a great mentality," he added.

Based on Presidential Decree Number 86 of 2021 regarding DBON, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has been appointed as chair of the Coordination Team for the DBON Center.

DBON is a master plan to establish efficient, superior, measurable, systematic, accountable, and sustainable national sports coaching and development policies for educational sports, recreational sports, competitive sports, as well as the sports industry. (Antaranews)