Sports Festivals: Double standards at play

by Reemus Fernando

Teen athletes competed in their numbers at Divisional and Inter Divisional Athletics Championships of the National Sports Festival held around the country during the last few weekends. If not for the schools athletes the competition venues of the regional championships of the National Sports Festival would have looked lifeless. Yet, it is doubtful when these athletes will be able to compete for their schools as the Ministry of Education is yet to soften its stance on conducting schools competitions due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Divisional and Inter Divisional Athletics Championships of the National Sports Festival and the upcoming Youth Championships will help a small segment of young athletes and their coaches figure out where they stand after a long layoff without competitions. But for a vast majority of school athletes who do not compete in these championships nothing would be more important than the Inter School Competitions and the All Island Schools Competitions, which still remain banned.

Last week, one School Sports Association, which was looking forward to ending months of inaction, in November, received a directive from the Ministry of Education to limit their competitions to friendly practice matches. The letter issued by the Ministry of Education included number of regulations which further discourage competitions.

Undoubtedly, serious precautions should be taken in the face of the present pandemic. Student athletes’ health should not be put to risk. But aren’t they currently being exposed to the virus more at packed private tuition classes, overcrowded buses and trains and even in their own class rooms in schools.

If taking part in competitions is a risk to their health, shouldn’t the school athletes be stopped from competing at the Divisional and Inter Divisional Athletics Championships of the National Sports Festival conducted by the Sports Ministry. Certainly the Ministry of Education cannot stop teen athletes from representing clubs during weekends at the above said competitions. If what is more important is the health of young athletes, then what is considered good for them by one Sports Ministry should not be deemed harmful by the Ministry of Education.

There are some health measures like measuring temperature at some of the above-said competitions, where The Island was present. Why can’t the Ministry of Education conduct competitions adhering to health guidelines?

Schools sports suffered setbacks even before the Covid 19 pandemic hit Sri Lanka. A better part of the preceding year was characterised by uncertainty caused by the Easter Sunday bomb attacks.

Even when normalcy prevails a vast majority of country’s schools do not conduct even a sports meet annually. Sports is probably the last on the priority list of the Ministry of Education. Physical health is the key to survival during a pandemic. Ironically, physical education is neglected badly in schools in these times of ‘new normal’. Even at leading schools, both private and public, the outsourced Sports Instructors were the first to lose jobs in the education sector during the lockdown. Both public and private schools may have saved some funds by cutting on salaries but they have certainly opened new avenues for disaster. Once, Olympian turned sprint coach Sunil Gunawardena told in an interview with this newspaper that he would have become a rogue or a rebellion had he not taken to sports.

The schools have been the nurseries of country’s sports. From the two Olympic medalists the country has ever produced to the world cup winning cricketers who have become famous world over, the seeds of sporting success has been sown at schools. Hundreds of thousands of others who took part in sports enthusiastically at school level would vouch for the invaluable lessons they learnt outside the classroom and how much sports helped build their character.

The Ministry of Education has taken serious note of the number of learning hours the students have lost due to the pandemic. Private tuition masters in packed halls are going hell for leather to finish the syllabuses in time of the all important O/L, A/L and Grade five Scholarship exams. The Covid 19 pandemic has come as a blessing in disguise to the sports authorities of the Ministry of Education. Repercussions from a year without sports at schools or how to compensate for the time lost in sports seems to be things they hardly worry about. Results of exams come within months and if you fail you certainly can try again. Country’s prisons are overflowing. We can only hope that what Gunawardena said about himself wouldn’t come true as regards the thousands of young men and women giving up sports this year.