The final race of the 2024 Olympic Games will soon be upon us and there are lots of positives to take from these events.
As our archipelago of islands face the daunting task of rebuilding after the passing of Beryl it is important that we consider not only the physical spaces (homes, schools, churches) but also how we develop our future sportsmen and women.
SVG sent 4 individuals to these games and all gave a good account of themselves and must be commended. The hope is that there is a support mechanism put in place to support their training and drive their development as they push towards 2028. For transparency any support systems should be weighted in performance levels so when athletes are added or removed there are no cries of foul play. This is not sponsorship.
In 2024 the question on the lips of every vincentian revolves around the lack of a conveyor belt that is brings through our sports people for the future? There are a few coaches who put their all into encouraging those they see with talent but often I fear a large number are lost in the primary school system.
It has always been drilled into me that to pick fault without making a suggestion on ways of improving is weak so the point below hopefully address that issue and in turn looks to address of cultural inadequacies in the area of sport.
The Applied Associates Degree in Sports Sciences program at the St Vincent Community College appears to be increasingly popular. The lecturers on this program all appear to be leaders within their respective sporting disciplines locally and in some instances have been deemed suitable to hold regional roles which should ensure that the level of teaching is not a concern. With the lack of Physical Education teachers in primary schools a suggestion would be that the ministry of education could have an interview process on completion of this 2 year program with a view to assigning these individuals to primary schools for a set period and ongoing training to develop these “PE teacher”. A decision could then be made at a later time regarding the suitability of these individuals to become fully trained teachers however I suspect that some change may need to be made to the teachers college curriculum.
This has got to be an integral part of our sports policy for the future.
True Patriot