Human Resource Planning critical to the future

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The Division of Physical Education and Sport has never appeared to be driven by any over-arching policy and expressed mandate.
There was certainly no clear delineated human resource policy impacting the appointment of persons to the Division of Sport.
While some individuals did acquire Physical Education degrees they were treated in much the same manner as those who did little or nothing to develop themselves.
There has never been any clear sense of direction emerging from the Division of Physical Education and Sport.
It came as no surprise that it was the National Olympic Committee and not the Division of Physical Education and Sport that began and brought to a conclusion a national consultation on the National Sports Policy that is currently in place. There has long been an absence of genuine leadership of physical education and sports at the governmental level.

Musical Chairs
St Vincent and the Grenadines is blessed with an abundance of talent in sport. It is therefore very unfortunate that over the years the successive governments have done no more than talk of their commitment to the nation’s youths through sport.
The option of pursuing studies in physical education came within easy reach of Vincentians when Cuba and CARICOM agreed on a series of annual scholarships. This was followed by a separate agreement that allowed St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia to access an additional number of scholarships annually.
In the absence of a national sports culture, a genuine governmental commitment to physical education and sport, an absence of appropriate human resource management in the public service and low-level recognition of sporting associations and their athletes, the numbers who opted for studies in physical education remained small.
Now that Physical Education has been placed on the programme of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), we have finally seen some movement towards placing the discipline on the nation’s education programme.