Latest update May 29th, 2026 12:30 AM
Latest News
- Exxon: As more oil projects come on stream US$600M insurance remains same
- Guyana risks EITI suspension if citizens remain shut out of information sharing
- Man in 10- AK-47 bust remanded
- Trio wanted in connection with Berbice AK-47 bust
- Israel’s Netanyahu directs army to seize 70 percent of Gaza Strip
CARICOM Cabinet Ministers told to make Sport more bankable
Theme: Promoting Inclusion, Health, Education and Development through Sport
“Sport must be developed and treated as part of the tradable sector and be re-positioned to contribute to the sustainable livelihood of people in the Region.”
Guyana’s Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony
Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Lolita Applewaithe
This was the charge delivered to Regional Cabinet Ministers with responsibility for Sports by Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Lolita Applewaithe, as the Special CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSODs) Confab with a focus on sports, got underway yesterday.
The Ministers are in Guyana attending the two-day 17th Special Meeting of COHSOD which is being held under the theme: Promoting Inclusion, Health, Education and Development through Sport, at the CARICOM Secretariat, Liliendaal.
According to Ambassador Applewaithe, “The business of sport must be pursued vigorously, and this must be done with a serious dialogue among stakeholders – governments, the private sector, sport organisations, academia and the sportsmen and women.”
Physical education in schools has also been placed on the agenda for the special confab, with regional experts looking to make it mandatory in schools. According to Ambassador Applewaithe “It is critical to ensure that our people adopt active and healthy lifestyles across every stage of their life cycle.”
In her address to the Region’s Ministers of Sport, she said that there can be no better time to discuss the issue of sport than in the current atmosphere of Caribbean success.
“The 27th Olympiad memories of the sterling performances and monumental achievement of the Region’s athletes remain fresh in our hearts and minds…And now the Region’s cricketers have added to this sense of euphoria by their resounding victory at the World T20 Championships.”
Ambassador Applewaithe also used the opportunity to congratulate Michael Muirhead on his recent appointment as the new CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board.
Guyana’s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr. Frank Anthony in his remarks to his Colleague Ministers was adamant that despite the obvious value of physical education, the Region has not taken it seriously thus far.
“We need to have greater synergies between the governments of the region and the regional organizations that manage sports within the region,” said Dr Anthony. Minister Anthony recommended that an “Active People Survey” be done to firstly benchmark the level of physical activity in the Region.
This, he stated, was necessary for any effective evaluation of any sport programmes implemented by CARICOM.
Executive Member of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), Keith Joseph, who also addressed yesterday morning’s opening ceremony, lamented that very often “our espoused values were not in sync with what we practiced,” and pointed to the apparent lack of enthusiasm of educators, for sport and physical activity in developing the ideal Caribbean person.
He urged Ministries of Education across the region to “resist the temptation to characterise student and teacher involvement in physical activity as a loss of instructional time,” and argued that “nothing that engenders character building, improves capacity to produce and stimulate the mental faculties should ever be so erroneously characterised as loss of instructional time…”
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.