Piling up human waste

FOR THE PAST two decades or so, there has been greater emphasis on ensuring persons are certified and qualified in physical Education and sports. Indeed, that thrust was very much welcomed then, and is still well embraced. This government policy seeks to take sports and physical education as a whole, on a new plain. As a consequence, scholarships are being continually sourced and several Vincentians embark on studies overseas, namely Cuba, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The principled and worthy undertaking though, has stopped short of effectively having these personnel changing the course of the way sports and physical education are administered here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Hence, the wealth of expertise lies in some classrooms across the country. This is not to say that those who are certified in aspects of physical education and sports, are not contributing, but if better deployed, more can be had out of them.

Beyond that, there are those with Masters Degrees and don’t have a direct input in shaping sports policies. It begs the question, what is the purpose of having such persons exploring higher education?

So, we are training young persons, who are in turn training the youngsters, and our sporting situation continues to regress. In other words, we are merely spinning our proverbial tops in mud.

But as things remain the same, and no light flickering at the end of the tunnel, the frustration and hopelessness have been given an institutional extension. This as youngsters who graduate from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College with high grades in Physical Education, are left to wander into nothingness.

It therefore stands to reason, that this policy of having trained personnel in sports and physical education, serves as window dressing and political pantomime.

Whereas, on one hand, the degree dynasty is being promoted and heralded, but in practical terms, engagement and involvement are absent, while sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines is not for the better.

But what is most incomprehensible, is that the untrained are used to impart knowledge at the early developmental stage of students at the primary school level.

Like everything else, when things are learnt at an early stage and with the best technical knowledge, the more competence and permanence they are likely to attain.

This column, like other concerned Vincentians, has continuously harped on the laxed attention given to sports here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, especially from the national policy-makers.

Regrettably, they seem not to have received the message and are still to awake from their slumber. Furthermore, by their modus operandi, they have simply placed sports down the pecking order, such that its best meal on the national table are the dregs.

They are oblivious to the changing nature of sports, from being a recreational activity to one of the world’s fast-growing industries. The result is that St Vincent and the Grenadines is left behind.

This, as those who have the most say nationally, prefer to have the stagnated persons who have reached their administrative dead-end, rudderless, spineless and are bereft of progressive ideas in sports.

It is incongruous that one of the modern day catch terminologies is “revolution”, but sports is yet to get that tag, as we are operating in the same mold, same personnel, and getting the same results.

Those in the top positions need to know that sports has gone beyond ability, as science is now a major part of today’s operations. If those changes are not forthcoming, we will continue to be at the rear, forever blinded by clientelism and maintaining the old order.

But, as those who have the purse strings parade in their vacuum as non-achievers, the interest of all those who have burnt the midnight oil is waning. Their hopes of returning here and making a positive dent in sports and physical education, are withering.

Hopelessly, it will turn out as a cadre of wasted expertise, only carrying out the functions of administration, rather than developing sports in a wholesome manner.

Instead of empowering and giving prominence to the bright sparks in sports and the fertile minds in physical education, we carouse in piling up human waste.