Education and Sport… Academics is only a small part of a truly educated child

Feb 14, 2022 Sports

Kaieteur News –
By Sean Devers

West Indies U-10 spinner, Ashmead Nedd

Chase’s Academy’s owner and principal, Henry Chase, poses with the Digicel’s 2016 Schools Football Championship hardware (Lorraine Harris photo)

Chase’s Academy, located at 120 Parade Street in Kingston was founded on November 6, 2010. Two years after the Private School opened their scholarship program, which was introduced since the Principal and owner, Henry Chase, always had a passion for sports.
The Scholarships offer free tuition and the opportunity of having their CXC and Cape subjects paid for, in addition to free lunches and transportation fees.
Chase’s Academy has gifted numerous youths with these scholarships. Footballers such as Kellman Norville, Nicolai, Andrews, Marcus Wilson, Thevvon Pluck, Darron Niles, Job Caesar, Ryan Hackett, Nicholas McArthur, Jeremy Garrett and Kelsey Benjamin all attended the academy.
Garrett played at U-17, U-20 and Senior levels and also captained Guyana at those levels.
In cricket, the Academy had the likes of First-Class spinner Ashmead Nedd, Joshua Persaud, Sachin Singh and Ashish Persaud among others.
Kaysan Ninvalle, Jamal Nicholas, Terrence de Roach and Yeudister Persaud are all national table tennis players who have attended the institution.
Speaking with the principal, he said, “I believe that education is not only academics, but real education would involve sports, academics, drama, music, debates, role play… Hence, I want to be a trendbreaker, to put back the keys parts into education.”
“In Guyana we only focus on the cognitive part and we are producing people who can only function at writing and passing examination.”
“They have no love for country, no compassion, no integrity. Sports help to produce that rounded student who will handle the pressure of life and we will have better citizens in Guyana,” Chase reasoned.
The current Golden Jaguars team has 10 former students current in the National outfit. Added to that, the U-17 Male and Female teams both have current Chase’s Academy students.
“There was a time in Guyana when all major educators ensured that their students internalized and lived out the manta. ‘A sound mind, in a healthy body’; to those educators, this was not just a hackney’s phrase uplifted for the pages of some Principles of Teaching text. It was a sound guiding principle that influenced the Guyanese Schools. It was our Guyanese culture, a culture that no longer exists today.”
“Today we celebrate the child with ten or more ones at CSEC or CAPE. Children are taught to do well at these Examinations, but what about integrity, patriotism, compassion, love, sports, drama, debates, music or community services? These are all important aspects of the truly educated.”
“During the 50s, 60s and 70s, some of the top Georgetown schools had viable cricket and football clubs. I played cricket for my school, East Ruimveldt Secondary, in the 1990s” Sir Chase stated.
“My real passion for cricket started in the Tiny Village of Unity/Lancaster when Colin Croft was selected to play for the West Indies. I was in Nursery School at the time and the whole community celebrated. We saw how sports changed the social status of Croft’s family. In the 1980s’ both Unity and Mahaica Hospital Grounds were functioning.”
The clubs had members and staff maintaining the Grounds, Lancaster and Unity were able to produce Croft and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Additionally, this early exposure to sports created unique passion and love for sports for Chase.

National Footballer, Jeremy Garrett

Chase feels that we need to revisit the days when Queen’s College, Tutorial and Central High, the Indian Education (Richard Ishmael Secondary) and Guyana Oriental College to name a few, had teams that participated in popular cricket competitions.
Those were The Rajah Cup, White cup, Northcote and Case Cup competitions. Many were weekend based cricket competitions in which local clubs and schools participated side-by-side.
Those exposures produced players like Carl Hooper from Christ Church Secondary, Faoud Bacchus of Richard Ishmael and Roger Harper of Queen’s College, among others. To a lesser extent, the same scenario played out with football and table-tennis.
The point being made is that these same schools so deeply involved in sports were producing top students who were able to qualify for top universities in the wider world.
Chase feels these are some of the main reasons he started the scholarship programme at Chase’s Academy in 2012.
“When the progrmme started, I was shocked with the number of people who hated what I was doing. Some of the children were school drop-outs. The programme gave them a second chance back at school and people hated that. This bothered me really. People did not understand my vision. It was an opportunity for children to continue their formal education and get CSEC or CAPE subjects and some people did not want that,” the fervent principal disclosed.
Chase’s Academy began their legacy in 2015, when they reached Linden in the Digicel Schools’ Football Tournament. That year they lost 2-1, but signaled to the football community that there is a new kid on the block.
The Academy then won the schools’ cricket tournament in 2017 with Need and Persaud playing major roles in that victory.
Added to that, the institution also won the Milo Schools’ Football Tournament in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2018 the school was banned from playing in this Tournament.
The irony in all this is even though they were banned by the Petra Organization, they still continued to give scholarships because the objectives were to develop the best talents in Guyana using education and sports.
“Children learn differently and some are motivated by sports to learn. Some children come into this world to play cricket, basketball, football or athletics but because they were born here, a land noted to destroy sporting talents, their gifts will not make a way for them. Had they been born into the Caribbean or England, Australia or the United States, their gifts would have made way for them,” the principal opined.
“It’s with this in mind that I continue to sow seeds. I continue to have the faith that someone in the Business Community or someone in Government who may have the same passion for education and Sports will come on board and partner with us and assist with the vision; the vision to truly merge education and sports.”
“Last year I had a very fruitful discussion with the Minister of Sports, the Director of Sports and the Chairman of the National Sports Commission and I am very hopeful that this year great things will happen.”
“The foregoing reinforces the position that sports can very well be incorporated into the academic programme and thus help produce rounded Guyanese adults. By now, most of us have come to recognize that educational success is not merely the acquiring of 20 CSEC subjects by a person who cannot meaningfully interact with his fellow Guyanese on the mental, social and ethnic levels.”
“There must be a more robust national attempt at symbiotically merging sports and education for the general good of the country,” Chase concluded.