Greater commitment to sports required

Such a discourse should lead to the identification of the developmental needs and programmes developed in four or five year cycles.
The idea is that there has to be a more systematic approach to the identification of appropriate persons for training as coaches for the future.
It is not everybody who is suited to the arduous task of coaching. It requires much commitment and dedication.
National sports associations have to establish plans for the development of their sport that are viable and should outline the selection criteria for the potential personnel to be trained in the various aspects of their sport.
At the same time we do have a responsibility to demand of national sports associations that they offer something of a career path fro those persons being invited for training in the sport. There must be some sort of incentive scheme that encourages person to give of their time and energies to sport.
Voluntarism is under threat in the Caribbean yet we seem to be paying little attention to the implications that this would inevitably have on the sports development process in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Our claim to make physical education compulsory in our schools is not as yet matched by scholarship offers to students to become appropriately qualified in this field. The faux pas with the students who should have already commenced their physical education degree programme in Venezuela bears testimony to this fact.
It remains an embarrassment to the authorities here.
The Jamaicans have shown us how the development of a comprehensive physical education programme in our schools can fashion a culture of sports and more particularly, in this specific case, the culture of athletics.
There is no mystery to this fact as was mentioned in the previous Column dated Friday 21 April 2006. It requires the commitment on the part of all involved in the sports movement in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
We also have to establish criteria by which the performance of the trained personnel can be evaluated periodically. This is necessary if we are to professionalise the operations.
Generally there is every reason for all organisations involved in the management of sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines to collaborate in the best interest of national development. This is the only way to guarantee systematic progress for all and a more beneficial use of available resources.