Give sport a prominent place in schools

WHILE we will now have Christian values taught in schools, there should also be a strong push by the Government through the Education Department to have sport be an integral part of the school curriculum.
Look, if PNGs sports revolution is to truly take off and produce the champions and top-shelf performances that the people crave for then just having the facilities and good coaching is only part of the answer.
Having a sound foundation is key to producing a generation of athletes who will have not just the physical attributes in terms of fitness and skills to compete with the world’s best, but also have the ingrained desire and attitude needed to make the leap from the average to the elite.
Look at the soccer World Cup currently being played in Russia and see the passion being shown by some of the world’s outstanding players and the drive they have to outshine their opponents.
They play for their country.
The difference between them and our Papua New Guinea athletes who want to emulate their role models in football, rugby league and other sports is the foundation.
What has become of everyone’s efforts when we hosted the Pacific Games in 2015, the Fifa Under-20 women’s World Cup in 2016, and some international rugby league matches?
The success of the events showed that PNG is capable of meeting international standards when it puts its mind to it.
But now that the facilities and technical expertise have been set up, the focus should be on building sports from the ground up.
There is still so much to do in terms of strengthening sport and developing the next crop of athletes and stars.
One of the most obvious ways to do this is to tap into the schools.
Schools have regimented systems that train students to follow rules and to work as a team while pushing individuals to excel.
It is a natural transition from classroom to playground.
In PNG, unfortunately, the school sports system is not as well-orgainsed across the board.
While various sports run their junior programmes, those competitions are usually run according to the code’s calendar and administrative plans.
One of the biggest disadvantages any national team has is that there are no established school competitions, either in Port Moresby or outside.
As for having a serious school competition to cater for grade eight to 12 players, the best that secondary school students can hope for is to join a club in the city competition.
Even rugby league struggles to run schoolboy competitions that run parallel with the city grade competitions.
Football cannot do much with issues relating to playing venues.
Some say that one of the drawbacks in running school competitions is that not all the talent is in the schools.
There is talent out in the settlements, villages and in the suburbs and those kids don’t necessarily go to school, so while having a school competition is a good thing we need to think about those outside the system.
Research shows the habit of physical activity can result in the improvement of overall fitness.
In addition, involvement in sport and physical activity can also contribute to establishing important social and emotional skills, and elevated levels of self-esteem.
Sport is not seen only as a recreational activity inserted into the education process to satisfy some key performance indicators or requirements, it is also the starting point for many elite sportsmen and women.