This one word sums up how Minister of Sport Stephen Lashley feels about the non-participation of the majority of the secondary schools at last week’s National Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships at Weymouth.
Just seven schools out of 22 secondary schools turned up to compete at the inter-schools’ meet last week, a meet which supposedly had the full support of all the schools when it was first announced by Minister Lashley two weeks ago.
The schools that competed were Alma Parris Secondary, Christ Church Foundation School, Darryl Jordan Secondary, Deighton Griffith School, Ellerslie Secondary and the Lester Vaughan School.
Lashley took time out of his schedule to take in some of the event and he admitted to the Press that he thought that more schools, if not all of them, would have been in attendance.
He added that he was disappointed that the other schools did not think it would have been possible to compete, especially in light of the fact that very little academically actually goes on in schools during the last few days leading up to vacation.
“It is regretful because I think the athletes who are not here would have been all for it. The delay in the completion of the track ought to have conjured up the opening of opportunities and I think that this event, the brainchild of the Association of Physical Education Teachers (APET), was that event.
“At this time of the school term, it is clear that students are on their way out to vacation and certainly to me this is a good opportunity to engage students who otherwise would be at school.
I don’t know why there was this type of response, but I think that the event here is well-organised. I want to compliment the athletes who would have come and certainly the organising committee that has presided over making sure that today would have been a success,” said Lashley.
The Barbados Advocate understands that most of the physical education teachers were in agreement with the hosting of the meet and that it was the principals who vetoed any participation by the majority of the schools.
Phillip Hackett, a member of APET and physical education teacher at the Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School, noted that the meet came about because the PE teachers wanted the athletes to get some form of inter-school competition.
He noted that they were aware that only a few schools would compete because of the small number of entries that were sent in by last Friday’s deadline date.
“PE teachers on their own would not be able to pick children up from school and bring them to a meet; there is a process within the schools that you would need to go through.
I don’t think that because all the schools were not here would be any indication that the PE teachers themselves were not on board,” said Hackett.
The preliminaries were staged yesterday at Weymouth and the competition will conclude sometime in late May after the completion of the laying of the new track at the National Stadium.
The Final is expected to attract many of the Carifta athletes, as well as some of the collegiate athletes who would be back in the island from the United States. Article By Petra Gooding
