-GTU president says he will not beg government this time
By Rawle Toney
This year’s national schools’ track and field, cycling and swimming championships is in a limbo as the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) has been unable to secure funding to stage the championships.
At a press conference held yesterday at the GTU office, GTU president Colywn King told the media that the union had budgeted a little over $10m ($10,133,206) to stage the championships.
However, King said the union was told by the Ministry of Education that they could only afford to give them $2.8m for the November 17-21 event.
The Mackenzie Sports Club ground, which will play host to the 48th installation of the championships, is said to be ready after undergoing repair works.
But King told the media that the money allocated to them by the ministry… “can’t do anything.”
He said that the union had sought an intervention from President Bharat Jagdeo and a final decision was expected today.
“Our budget for this championship was sent into the Ministry of Education since February of this year. We have had several meetings with the Permanent Secretary and the Minister of Education about the schools’ championships and I can only gather now that they are not serious about athletics,” King deduced.
“It seems like sports is only for certain race and class in this country since I have also spoken to the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports about the championships and they all seem to think that only certain sports can have money from the government.
Athletics only happens once a year unlike plenty other sports whom they always support,” he added.
King said that this was the third year that the championships were in limbo and unlike the previous years, he was not prepared to go and beg for money to make the championships a success.
“I’m not going to beg for money again because at the end of the day it is the government that gets all the praises when the event is successful.
“I’ve done that before and I’m not going to do it again. The ministry needs to come forward and say publicly that they have no time for athletics.
“All they are doing is making people fools year in, year out.”
King said a decision was needed urgently to make sure that districts such as District Eight and Nine, who would normally turn up at least two days before the championships, do not waste money and time and endure the long travelling for nothing.
The national school athletics championship is one of the high points in school athletics since it brings the country’s best athletes in the school system to compete for trophies and medals and the right to be called national champions.
