Streamlining School Sports: Government Explores Role of a Dedicated Commission

The need for an organised body to manage school sports has been a longstanding discussion, particularly under the current Pierre-led administration. In theory, a School Sports Commission would oversee various school sports meets across the country as an external governing body, ensuring standardised and unbiased organisation for judging, race time recording, and scoring during events.

While the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports currently manages interschool competitions, the organisation of interschool sports varies significantly. Some schools excel in management, while others struggle due to personnel limitations and other factors.

When asked about the status of establishing such a commission, Minister for Youth Development and Sports Kenson Casimir, told reporters at Monday’s pre-Cabinet press briefing that while the basic structure for the commission is in place, several hurdles remain before it can become a reality.

“We’ve been talking about a school sports commission, and we do have the skeleton of a school sports commission. That is something that has been ongoing. We do have individuals from different sectors as part of that organising body, but we have a situation where this is dynamic and fluid in the sense that schools are under the Ministry of Education and a lot of the times, you have those little challenges as a Ministry of Sports in terms of implementing. There are boundaries to what the Ministry of Sports can do with a school institution,” he said.

“I think my ministry is always willing to provide that level of support. But we’ve had a lot of conversations as to whether or not school sports should fall under the purview of the different schools, but we continue to collaborate to see how it is that we can streamline that.”

In other Caribbean nations, school sports are managed by independent governing bodies, ensuring efficiency and consistency. For example, Barbados operates under the Barbados Secondary Schools Athletics Championship (BSSAC), while Jamaica has the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), both of which successfully run school sporting events at a high level.

It remains to be seen whether the establishment of a similar independent body for school sports will become a reality under the current administration.