Make physical education an examinable subject - Sports Officer

New Edubiase (Ash), Sept 3, GNA - Coach Anthony Edusei, acting Ashanti Regional Sports Development Officer has suggested to the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to consider making physical education an examinable subject at the basic and senior secondary school levels.

He said making physical education an examinable subject will help encourage and develop the interests of children who have the talent in sports from the initial stages of their upbringing to plan their future lives in sports.

Coach Edusei said this when he was interacting with the GNA Sports during the selection of the Under 17 and Under 20 teams of the former Adansi East District at New Edubiase.

He said since physical education was not an examinable subject at the basic and senior secondary school levels, most schools do not pay attention or lay any emphasis on the subject, whereas the schools have a syllabus for the subject.

"As a matter of fact, some schools do not even have the subject on their time table while those who have it on their time tables misuse such important contact hours.

Coach Edusei said if serious attention was paid to the subject, it will go a long way to produce sports men and women who will be academically brilliant, skilful and morally sound than the present crop of sports men and women."

Coach Edusei attributed the high rate of indiscipline and low performance in sports, particularly in football to the lack of moral standard training imparted to the sports men and women.

He said that if the country picked her sports men and women based on their physical education background, there would be a very high degree of discipline in the country's sports to enable it develop even to international standards.

He advised District Sports Development Officers to instil discipline in their players because he said, discipline was one of the cardinal aims and principles in sports.

Mr Steve R. Amankwaah, former Adansi East District Sports Development Officer asked school authorities to give equal respect to sports as they give to the other subjects because not all students get the chance to further their education at higher levels. 03 Sept. 04