Cudjoe hopes Jamaican officials' visit, training 'ramps up' school sports

JAMAICAN officials will launch a pilot plan to help ramp up school sports in TT in July. Sport Minister Shamfa Cudjoe revealed this on Friday.

TT and Jamaica are in talks to help improve this country's school sports, with a focus on athletics.

Cudjoe and other officials visited several locations in Jamaica this year, including the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, the Institute of Sports, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association, and the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association.

They also attended the 2023 ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships, also called "Champs," a meet where youngsters compete at a high level.

In May, Cudjoe revealed that officials from the GC Foster College would be visiting TT to train and guide PE (physical education) teachers and administrators and managers "so that we can better deliver sport in schools."

Speaking to the media on Friday after a tour of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain – which is undergoing repairs – Cudjoe said the officials are set to arrive in July.

In addition to training, she said, they will "do a pilot project to prepare technical support to go out into the school districts for September as we aim to ramp up sports at schools and develop their sporting programmes.

"(We will) make sure that all school districts have access to an athletic club, because we are using athletics as the pilot sporting discipline in order to ramp up sports in schools."

Newsday tried to contact Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly for comment, but messages went unanswered.