School Sports, Catalyst For Sporting Excellence In Rivers – Educationists

Governments at the various tiers have been urged to revive school sports as a necessary ingredient for sporting excellence in Rivers State and Nigeria at large.

A cross section of sports fans in Port Harcourt told Tidesports that school sports should become an integral part of every government educational policy.

They reasoned that most private schools in Port Harcourt and environs do not provide sports facilities for their students, while lacking adequate space to locate such facilities.

An educationist and director of Promise Institute of Commerce (PIC), James Mpi noted that most successful sports men and women in the country were spotted during inter school competitions.

According to him, talents spotted during the competitions were nurtured to stardom, by giving them scholarships and opportunities to explore and actualise their talents.

Mpi decried the dearth of sporting facilities in most public schools in the state, and lauded the efforts of the Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s administration to revive public schools.

Assessing sports in private primary and secondary schools, which dot the state, Mpi called for the ban of schools without the right environment and facilities to aid sports learning.

‘How can you operate an institution responsible for the growing of the future generation without the necessary facilities in that regard.

Sports is a vital ingredient for the development and it must be taken seriously in any academic curricula.

“I recommend that any school without the necessary facilities should be suspended, especially if we want to improve our performances and fortunes in national and international sports competitions,” he said.

Mpi praised some schools, especially, in the rural areas for embarking on yearly inter-house competitions and called on the appropriate sports authorities to attend these events to achieve its purposes.

Another retired educationist, Pa Austin Ekanem, said that considerable funds should be voted yearly for sporting activities in schools.

Ekanem said that despite the presence of facilities in some schools, the organisation of sports competitions involves huge financial and material resources.

“I can tell you that, when I was in the school system, one of our greatest challenges was getting financial help from government and public-spirited individuals.

“Let the funds be provided, monitored and we would see how it goes.

However, the schools should be able to raise considerable amounts through the parents’ teachers association (PTA) and other philanthropic individuals”, he said.

Akonta Samuel