Death of primary school sports?

THE EDITOR: Most children who engage in sporting activities have their first experience at the elementary or primary school level. It is here that many develop their fundamental motor and locomotor skills which allow them to not only participate in sport but function in basic life skills.

As students returned to schools throughout TT in 2022, one of the many aspects that students looked forward to was sport. From the primary to the secondary and even the tertiary level, students were eagerly anticipating engaging with their peers in the various disciplines on offer.

While the secondary students were the first to lock horns, their primary contemporaries were not as fortunate. The National Primary Schools Football League commenced in October 2022 but ground to a halt at the district level after the title sponsor, Atlantic LNG, failed to sponsor the competition.

The league had restarted in the hope that the sponsor would continue its corporate social responsibility but this did not materialise.

It soon became clear that Atlantic LNG’s vision for their continued sponsorship was not in line with what traditionally transpired at the primary school level with respecpetition: no national championships in both disciplines. Most districts would have completed their championships and awaited the next step: the nt to competition in football, cricket and track and field.

The sponsor was looking to sell a “festival-type" environment where the three disciplines were to be highlighted over one or two days. It would mean the end of the interschool competition via standard rules and regulations and an abridged version of all disciplines over a shortened period, at the same time.

The reduction in sponsorship was one of the clear objectives of this “festival.” While the sponsor would have spent well over half a million dollars sponsoring three disciplines, with a “festival” this would be reduced significantly.

What the sponsor has failed to realise is that in numerous cases the same students who play football also represent their school in athletics and other disciplines, so it would be logistically impossible for a student to participate in two events at the same time in a festival-type event where multiple disciplines would be ongoing at the same time.

Unfortunately, it appears that the fate of the National Primary Schools Track and Field Championships and cricket leagues are doomed to suffer the same fate as the football comational championships.

These districts would have funded their championships without any funding from the sponsor. The same applies to football and cricket as well. How is this truly developmental if the sponsor is not investing at the district level and only at the national level? Not even a football to participating schools.

This approach by the sponsor will spell the death of sport in primary schools. If the sponsor is unwilling to provide the requisite funding and provide a platform for true development, then it should step aside and allow another corporate entity to assist.

Sport to benefit the nation’s schoolchildren should not be destroyed by any self-serving or misdirected entity but be guided in a path to benefit and develop children in an appropriate manner.

DAVID HAMID

via e-mail