The revamping of the National Schools Athletics Championships, better known as ‘Nationals’, has been made official as the Ministry of Education (MOE), through its Allied Arts Unit, sent out a memorandum to all schools yesterday.
To be renamed the National Secondary Schools Athletic Championships (NSSAC), the Ministry in the Memo set out guidelines for the running off of Standard Trials, Inter-House Competition, Inter-School Competition, and the National Schools Championship, all to be implemented immediately.
The various phases will be executed through September (currently) to February of next year, with the NSSAC crowning the new structure in March (2025).
According to the memo seen by this publication, the new model to be introduced was fuelled by recommendations made to the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) by key stakeholders, “which include the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), and the Unit of Allied Arts (UAA).”.
The memo also maintained that the MOE considered several key factors, including the International Sports Calendar set out by World Athletics (no international track and field events are scheduled for September to December), selection of athletes for regional games, age-appropriate competition, national database and standards, technical officials, and instructional time.
However, the AAG states that it was not engaged in the consultation and decision to make this change.
This statement was made in another publication.
The article was headlined ‘AAG General Council refutes claim of engagement with Allied Arts to scrap ‘Nationals’. In the article, members of the AAG’s General Council alleged that they were not consulted with by the Ministry to aid in the remodelling of ‘Nationals’.
However, Head of the UAA, Nicholas Fraser, has doubled down on his position, stating that they were in talks with the AAG about the possible revamping of the competition more than a decade ago.
“We have been in contact with the AAG about improving ‘Nationals’ since 2011. In 2015, the AAG was a major part of the Forum for the Development of the Schools Athletics Championship” Fraser told Stabroek Sport.
With the implementation of a revamped ‘Nationals’ now official, a special committee, the NSSAC Management Committee, will be formed to oversee the hosting of the NSSAC.
