INSPORTS must raise its game
I think it would be instructive and make for pretty interesting reading if one of Jamaica’s eminent pollsters should take on the task of conducting a favourability poll on the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) at this time. In the meantime, I would love it a great deal if the institute would lift its game and perform in the best interest of our young students so that their talent will not be suffocated.
INSPORTS has had a long-standing tradition of developing sporting talent in our youth across the island, but in the past few years the organisation’s efforts in this regard range from inconsistent to poor. I can recall that in the 1990s and proceeding towards the turn of this century primary and all-age school coaches could begin to prepare their teams from as early as in the summer, operating within the framework of certainty that INSPORTS’ netball and football competitions would be organised and completed within the Christmas term. Not so now, as for the past few years students at this age level — certainly in the Corporate Area — have had to depend on some local schools to organise competitions so they get a chance to parade their skills and develop their talent.
Consistently poor organisation
Coupled with the inconsistency of the staging of anticipated annual football and netball competitions is the added dimension of consistently poor organisation and officiating of the competitions, especially the national track and field championships. I have witnessed teary-eyed students walk away after being marshalled out of their duly-earned right to contest races at more advanced rounds of the competition. The most glaring case came last year when one of our students was twice left out by the marshals after qualifying from earlier rounds. If it weren’t for the intervention of her principal and coach, who thwarted severe hostility from the stewards of the meet, this 10-year-old child would have been cheated out of her earned opportunity to contest semi-finals and final respectively. As history now has it, the said child got a bronze medal in the 150-metre event.
The “changes meeting” organised by INSPORTS close to competition was just a ‘face card’. Bad it was that the meet organisers arrived a couple of hours after the designated time, but worse for the fact that our school’s proposed changes were never made by the officials, causing several of our students to be excluded from participating at the meet. Now what do you say to young students who have had to undergo these ordeals at this tender age? How many of them will want to continue doing sports under these conditions?
Scheduling of events
The adherence to the scheduling of events at the last meet did not escape my attention. It was made even more pronounced because the meet was not ‘afforded’ the stadium lights and some races were run at dusk in poor visibility on a couple of days. It struck me as organisational weakness because on those two days the meet started approximately an hour after the scheduled start time. I believe something must be done to correct this problem in the future.
Exclusion policy
The upper age limit for primary school students is 13, but INSPORTS has sought to ignore this fact and have been carrying through with Under-12 competitions across all sports. They have sat comfortably in their offices feeling good about themselves after eliminating this cohort of students from their competitions and suppressing their talent, even though the Government of Jamaica says that these students are bona fide students of primary schools. Are the honourable ministers of sports and education aware of, and comfortable with, this practice, especially since INSPORTS is also a government agency?
Owen R Speid is principal at Rousseau Primary School in St Andrew. Send comments to the Observer of speidowen@yahoo.com.