Letter to the Sports Editor…Who will bell the cat, Mr. Sam?

Nov 10, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Our government has already spent a princely sum in developing a comprehensive plan for sports development, which includes schools. Unfortunately it is sitting on the proverbial shelf gathering dust. Members of the private sector are stepping up to fill the financial void that our government has allowed to exist where sports development is concerned. This is even with the lack of true incentives such as tax credits and deductions for charitable contributions to sports and other community development activities.
Comprehensive schools soccer programmes, such as the one implemented by the Guyana Sports Development Foundation (GSDF), provides specific consideration of the whole-person development of the students involved. This is achieved by insisting that there is a minimum grade requirement for participants in the Scotia Bank/Pepsi School Football Academy Programme. Students are also given the opportunity to train as assistant referees and use Laws of the Game for CXC/CSEC exams. In the interest of overall soccer development, extensive time is spent training the coaches and providing coaching materials. Students have weeks of training prior to the start of the actual competition.
Despite the amazing showing of the Guyana Lady Jaguars soccer team on the international stage in recent times, most soccer programmes/tournaments do not include girls. The Guyana Lady Jaguars team was composed mainly of females of Guyanese parentage who are playing for colleges in the USA and Canada. This connection between schools participation in sports and excellence in performance should not be dismissed lightly.
The Scotiabank/Pepsi soccer academy programme under the auspices of the GSDF is the first and practically only schools soccer programme that caters to female soccer players. At least 12 players from the Scotiabank/Pepsi schools soccer academy programme were selected to represent Guyana in the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup qualification. The lack of support and resources played a large part in the team’s dismal performance.
The Scotia bank/Pepsi programme is geared to align sports with academics with the ultimate goal of producing well rounded individuals pursuing academic or sports later in life. The programme places a very strong emphasis on discipline resulting in the reduction of some of the social issues currently experienced in society. The involvement of parents is a critical component of this programme and students will be constantly reminded of their roles as models in their schools and communities.
It was in 2009 that 2 members of the Allied Arts Department of the Ministry of Education met with the then president of the GSDF asking for the GSDF’s assistance to develop a schools’ football programme. The GSDF spent several months in formalizing a comprehensive plan involving various stakeholders including the Ministry of Education (MOE), Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Ministry of Sports (MoS). The first and only sponsors who saw the vision of this programme other than the GSDF were the Bank of Nova Scotia and Demerara Distilleries Limited under the Pepsi Brand. They remain the only large sponsors to this programme after 3 years.
The Proposal was discussed with the stakeholders mentioned, but although pledging support very little has been done to get the programme to realize its true potential. Since the inauguration of the programme in 2010 there has been quite a lot of attention to School football tournaments but not development programmes.
We welcome your call to “put structure” in the schools’ football programme, but it should be the MOE taking the lead with strong support from the GFF who should be able to provide proper guidance for schools football development. It should be noted that prior to the first Scotia bank/Pepsi programme in 2010 there was no schools soccer for over 30 years and no government ministry involvement despite several invitations.
The Ministry of Education should take the leadership role in bringing together the stakeholders who have stepped-up to the ball field in schools soccer development, in order to devise that clear vision. As in so many other endeavors in Guyana, the interest of the common good is subjugated to personal ambitions and political expediencies.
We also do our children a grave injustice by emphasizing the sound mind aspects of education while paying lip service to the sound body component. We at the GSDF have heard your call Mr. Sam and await your leadership in bringing the stakeholders together for development of the vision. In other words put your money………
Victor Wright, Secretary, GSDF
schools football development. It should be noted that prior to the first Scotia bank/Pepsi program in 2010 there was no school soccer for over 30 years and no government ministry involvement despite several invitations.
The Ministry of Education should take the leadership role in bringing together the stakeholders who have stepped-up to the ball field in schools soccer development, in order to devise that clear vision. As in so many other endeavors in Guyana, the interest of the common good is subjugated to personal ambitions and political expediencies. We also do our children a grave injustice by emphasizing the sound mind aspects of education while paying lip service to the sound body component. We at the GSDF have heard your call Mr. Sam and await your leadership in bringing the stakeholders together for development of the vision. In other words put your money………
Victor Wright ,Secretary, GSDF

 

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