Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the six education districts in the state, on Friday , flagged off its School Sports Intervention Programme (LASSIP) at Teslim Balogun Stadium. It is part of the state’s efforts to discover and develop talents from the grassroots.
At the ceremony, which attracted many games masters/mistresses and teachers from different schools, LSSC expressed its desire to make the state Nigeria’s hub for talent discovery.
Speaking at the launch, Lagos State’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Olusegun Dawodu, said LASSIP would enable more youths to embrace sports while studying hard to be successful in their academic career.
“The programme has been in existence in the past, leading to the discovery of many talents, who went outside the country to win laurels.
“The state government is delighted to be part of this initiative, as there is a need to start building and discovering talents from the schools.
“Our goal in Lagos State is to be the hub of talent hunt and sports development in Nigeria. The programme will go a long way to redefine sports as an integral part of development in Lagos and across the Federation because exposing children to sports in their early stage of life is vital in its development,” he said.
On his part, executive chairman, Lagos State Sports Commission, Sola Aiyepeku, praised teachers that attended the event for their desire to impact the knowledge of students, adding, however, that programmes would be organised to educate parents on the benefits of allowing their wards to combine education with sports.
“LASSIP is a wide-reaching intervention project to reintegrate sports into Lagos Sports Curriculum.
“Catching them young in schools has been the trade mark of talents discovery from schools in the past.
“We are delighted that the programme, which has been on for the past one year has been launched. Games masters and mistresses in different schools would be given the necessary motivation, exposure and training to impact quality knowledge to the students,” he said
He disclosed that Lagos State is also planning to build more stadiums across the state to afford students the opportunity to train outside school hours.
“Schools, which don’t have sports facilities on their premises, can also take advantage of the external facilities to train their students.
“Students who cannot take sports as a profession can be educated in such areas as sports journalism, sports law, sports administration and sports marketing etc.
“We thank Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for supporting this initiative of taking sports development to school”.