Minister for Youth Development and Sports, Kenson Casimir on Monday addressed the late commencement of school sports, and the postponement of several sports to later in the school year.
Casimir, a former Youth and Sports Officer, and a former journalist, said that his department experienced “glitches” due to unexpected illnesses and a heavy workload.
“We have a dynamic where you have a Ministry of Youth and Sports with four Youth and Sports Officers, responsible for doing so much,” he explained. “We have a situation where one of our Youth and Sports Officers fell sick at the most inopportune time. That provided somewhat of a delay.
“You also have to take into consideration what type of year we had. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sport had perhaps the busiest year you could ever ask a Ministry of Youth and Sports in our history.
“In 2024 we were preparing for the World Cup, then we hosted the World Cup. We were preparing for Olympics, and then we saw what happened at the Olympics. And so we were preparing for the return of Julian Alfred. We were preparing for CPL, and you saw what happened at CPL.
“And then you had a situation where… some glitches, there were some glitches. But to make it seem as if we were incapable of dealing with those glitches and have what we have going on now is absolutely ludicrous.”
Schools’ netball started a week after the scheduled date, as announced by the Ministry via its Facebook page. Schools football has commenced, with basketball postponed to later in the school year, and alternate plans being made for table tennis.
But the Minister said that he is hopeful of an improvement in the way school sports is delivered going forward, with the implementation of a school sports commission. Since at least 2009, it has been recommended that school sports should be managed by an independent entity, as is the case in neighbouring territories like Jamaica and Barbados.
The Minister also acknowledged that his Ministry is challenged in dealing with schools, as communication with each institution must go through “the Chief Education Officer or a senior official.” He noted that the Saint Lucia Physical Education Teachers Association had raised some concerns with the late planning for school sports in the first term of the school year, but said that those concerns have been settled.
“There were some issues with the PE Teachers Association, and they did have some legitimate gripes,” Casimir conceded. “But at the end of the day, good sense prevailed. We had a meeting with the Minister of Education, we had discussions at the ministries and now we have school sports, we have the competitions ongoing.
“And we’re expecting that within a week and a half, that most of the competitions would be concluded. And then we’ll be having a proper sitdown with a school sports commission to ensure that we continue to move the school sports agenda in the right direction.”
