The National Sports Commission and the Guyana Volleyball Federation will collaborate over the next few days to coordinate a teacher’s volleyball clinic to revitalise the sport in Guyana.
The programme was launched on Wednesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in the presence of several senior officials including Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony.
Volleyball has been selected as one of the disciplines to be drafted into the CXC curriculum and will target physical education teachers.
However the programme will not end at what was referred to as the first phase which is CXC level but it is hoped that through this collaboration an under-20 national team can be formed as part of the second phase of the course.
Guyana Volleyball Federation (GVF) President Lennox Shuffler informed his audience that creative thinking, collective effort and commitment were the three elements needed for the sustenance of such a programme throughout its phases of development in the country.
Dr Anthony said at the launch that he would like to see sports at the community and school level but his main of objective is to implement a sports programme in every school in Guyana.
“Right now we do not have sports in all the schools. We do not have enough teachers that are teaching sports in all the schools.
That does not mean we do not recognize the importance of sports in the school system and as you celebrate education month a special emphasis must be placed on why it is important to have sports in the school system.”
The Minister enforced that teachers present at the course need to impart their knowledge effectively to students and other teachers while making it their duty to alter the mindset of persons around them regarding their attitudes to sport.
“In terms of the association, the association has not been as active as it could have been and there is a role for that activism both at the national level, at the community level and of course in the schools. We have always been trying to allocate more of our resources to the school and community level and we would like to see this happen with volleyball.”
The Minister added that volleyball is a sport which requires little equipment unlike other sports and therefore can be easily popularized. He made it known that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport through its Allied Arts Department will continue training persons in the volleyball programme even after its completion.
