There was a special meeting at the ministry of education today (27) to discuss the ways of designing the structure and the development of sports schools currently implemented for the promotion of the sports in the schools of this country.
This meeting was held with the leadership of The Minister of Education G.L. Pieris and The Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Namal Rajapaksa.
While expressing his ideas at this occasion the minister of education said that it is an essential matter to promote the sports within the schools in the process of creating a healthy generation of children mentally and physically developed. For that purpose, the steps must be taken to develop the human and physical resources in the sports schools that have been established at present representing each district. The minister also pointed out that a program must be devised to make children attracted towards sports and to obtain the support of the business community and the private sector for the development of the field of sports.
Expressing his views at this occasion The Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Namal Rajapaksa said that the school sports must be promoted in order to create the sportsmen who can go beyond the national level and win at the international levels and also instead of selecting the competent out of the incompetent it is better to select the most competent out of the competent. He also mentioned that the steps will be taken to further improve the facilities of existing sports schools and to increase the standards of those schools after identifying the priority needs of each sport school. In place of the present sports act a new act will be introduced in the future and the steps will be taken to upgrade the school sports according to a developmental plan based on the targets and activities, the minister further stated.
The attention of the ministers was drawn to the issues such as improvement of existing hostel facilities of the sport schools, unavailability of playgrounds with necessary facilities and the lack of classroom space when the children are admitted to the sport schools and also to provide support through national pool for training and updating the sports instructors. Accordingly, it was proposed here to prepare a new regular methodology for admitting the students to sports schools so as to solve the problems emerged in the current system.
The Minister of Sports further said that the steps will be taken in the future to prepare a proper mechanism for developing the school sports through sports schools with the collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sports and the steps will also be taken to establish digital cells in each sports school with the facility of contacting the national pool for sport activities connecting all sports schools in the future. The minister also appreciated the contribution made by the Ministry of Defense for training the sport persons and he proposed to the Ministry of Education to take actions for conducting a national tournament among the sports schools in the future.
The State Minister of Sports Thenuka Widanagamage, Member of Parliament Premnath Dolawatta, the Secretary of Education Mr. K. Kapila C.K. Perera, the Secretary of Youth Affairs & Sports Mr. Anuradha Wijekoon, the State Secretary of the State Ministry of Rural Schools, Sports and Infrastructure Development Mr. Raveendra Samarawickrama, several senior officers, the principals of the sport schools and several officers of the ministry of sports and the ministry of defense had joined in this occasion.
