Administrators Urge Training Of Games Masters

Technical officials at the 2nd edition of the Table Tennis Talent Hunt programme in Lagos State have called for the retraining of schools’ games masters to improve sports development.

The officials said in Lagos that the capacity development of the games masters would enable them to promote sports in schools and nurture discovered talents.

The talent hunt programme was jointly organised by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) and the National Sports Commission (NSC) for primary school pupils.

“The children are excited and they show considerable interest in the game. However, they need to be taught the fundamentals to guide them in the right direction.

“This can only be realised if the schools’ games masters have a thorough knowledge of this sport.

“There should, therefore, be a refresher course to educate the games masters, at least every quarter,’’ Mr Offiong Ndem, a Chief Referee at the competition, said.

Ndem said that he was impressed with the performance of the pupils despite their lack of technical knowledge of the game.

He commended the NSC for introducing the talent hunt competition, adding that such programmes would facilitate the discovery of talents.

Another official, Saheed Adedeji, said that most games masters failed to update their knowledge of the rules of the games they were competent in.

“The talents are there and they should not be wasted. Therefore, measures should be put in place to help the young players by training their games masters,’’ he said.

Adedeji said that table tennis had a lot of potential, adding that it should be given adequate attention by ensuring that the games masters’ knowledge of the sport was updated.

The officials also called on individuals and corporate bodies to assist the sports ministry by sponsoring competitions to facilitate sports development.

Reacting to the suggestion, Shola Odunsi, the games master of St Joseph Catholic Primary School, Lagos, said that such retraining courses should be organised for games masters when schools were on vacation.

She said that such arrangements would ensure that the schools’ regular academic programmes were not affected by the courses.

Odunsi said that most sports instructors were eager to undergo such courses because they would help in improving their expertise, while enhancing sports developments in their respective schools.