LNP – Ministry of Education to grant permission for schools sports events in November

Ministry of Education is considering granting permission for schools sports associations to conduct their competitions during the third term following a number of requests made by sports associations.

A top official of the Ministry of Education said that various school sports associations affiliated to the ministry had made requests to conduct their annual competitions later this year after they were cancelled due to the covid 19 pandemic.

“We decided at a meeting held in the presence of the secretary of the ministry to grant permission for sports associations to conduct their competitions after the third term commences in November,” the official told The Island.

“The third term will start on November 16 and the school sports associations can make requests with their plans to conduct the competitions. Then we will consider their arrangements and the readiness to conduct events adhering to social distancing guidelines before giving permissions.”

“But we will not encourage sports events during weekdays since we have to cover syllabuses which were affected by the pandemic. The sports associations will have to make arrangements to conduct the events during weekends,” he said.

However, the All Island Schools Games conducted by the Ministry of Education will not be held.

He said all sports training has to be done after school hours.

All sports action including schools sports came to a standstill in March due to the outbreak of covid 19 pandemic. The Under-19 cricket tournaments were reaching the business end when a lockdown came in to force and some Education Divisions had concluded their Divisional Sports events and were waiting for the Zonal Meets to commence.

Though schools started for some grades recently with many restrictions imposed to keep social distancing guidelines the Ministry of Education cancelled all school sports during second term.