Avellon Williams
GRENADA – In conjunction with the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Education developed a new sports programme for Grenada’s primary schools to combat obesity.
Denver Welsh, curriculum officer for physical education, participated also and said it is an issue the department is eager to address, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have to realize that the students have been away from physical activity for quite a while, almost ten years and counting, because of the pandemic that we had; this would have generated some form of obesity because remember they were inactive and a lot of these students know when we look at them those who used to perform very well in physical activity, ad they’re finding some difficulties.”
Welsh continued, “So, of course, obesity is one of the main issues that we see presently even in the primary schools, and this is something that we really need to target, this is something that really needs to take care of, and I think a programme of such nature would be able to at least cover or to assist some on that in that regard.”
The goal of the workshop is to provide primary school students with fundamental knowledge about sports and physical education, which will help them transition to secondary school more easily.
Physical fitness was one of many expected outcomes of the new physical education program being developed by the curriculum minister.
He noted, “One of the outcomes we’re looking at for example they should be able to develop good social skills, we’re looking at fitness, for example, we’re looking at local motor skills, we also looking at different types of fitness.”
Adding that “we have the health-related and the skill-related fitness, so these are some of the main areas that we’re looking into, and then we’re going to use some activities. To be able to accomplish, some of these outcomes”.
On March 17, 2022, a new wing was commissioned at the St Mark Secondary School, and two older wings were upgraded for the new development. These upgrades have finally put a stop to cramped spaces and leaky acoustics for students of three grades form.
Acting principal Caris de Gannes says they moved into the new wing in an environment that is more conducive to learning.
“Anybody who’s involved in education knows that the first thing is ensuring that our students have a conducive environment to learn. It knows that one of the most fundamental things with regards to education is ensuring that our students can learn in a comfortable environment. I think that adds to our compound has ensured that our students have a new clean, safe space in which they can learn,” the acting principal added.
The new building replaces temporary structures that have been sitting on the hardcourt for years. Gannes emphasized, “firstly, the new wing had three classrooms on the school court. And so that hinder the students from partaking and training in extracurricular activities, in particular the sporting activities, the netball, the volleyball, etc., so these buildings would have been there for a couple of years.”
As a result, we appreciate having those removed from the court, and now we have these additional three classrooms that are within the compound of the institution.
These upgraded facilities have enabled the 490 students to once again play basketball and netball. In addition to completing the new wing of the St Mark Secondary School, two older wings were also upgraded.
“Yes, so we had an upgrade done to this wing. We call it the middle black and also the bottom block that houses form fifth one student and one form of three classrooms. So, we didn’t get an entirely new structure, but it was refurbished,” she underscored.
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