Programme needs to have tangible benefits

THE Papua New Guinea Oceania Sports Education Programme started on Monday and ends next Thursday  in Port Moresby.
OSEP is a programme under the Oceania National Olympic Committee that delivers training courses that include the master educator, educator, managing sports organisations, sport in community administration and community coaching and officiating.
The programme is supported by the Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation and is coordinated through the PNG Olympic Committee.
More than eleven codes have representatives attending the courses which are being conducted at several venues.
While these course are needed and serve to enhance the capacity of the various sports in terms of having the know how in management, training and coaching – the big question that needs to be asked is whether the indivuduals taking the courses will be able to pass on that information to others in their sport.
This has been a major problem across the board in PNG sports. We can have all the best training at the top and aquire a range of skills and knowledge but if that information isn’t transfered down to the associations and provinces effectively than as noble and positive as the idea is, it falls flat because there is no real improvement to the code at the end of the day.
It is interesting to note that the representatives of the codes taking part in this programme are all based in Port Moresby.
Furthermore, most of the participants taking part are from the PNG Sports Foundation.
One code that does not have representation is athletics and they should be involved.
One has to ask why a major code has been left out of a programme such as this.
For this programme to be deemed a success in the long run, local organisers should ensure follow ups and monitor as well as facilitate the codes’ use of this training.