The Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe and the Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha discussing at the special meeting held at the Sports Ministry Auditorium yesterday. National Sports Council Chairman Arjuna Ranatunga is also present. (Picture courtesy Sports Ministry media)
A programme to develop sports and youth affairs through a joint effort by the Sports and Education ministries was launched yesterday at the Sports Ministry Auditorium. It is the brainchild of Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe and the National Sports Council headed by Arjuna Ranatunga.
All Provincial Councils Governor’s are involved in this sport development programme while senior officials of the Provincial Councils, Divisional Secretariats, Sports Ministry and Education Ministry, three forces Commanders, National Sports Body top officials were present on this occasion.
Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe said in view of the two Asian titles won by Netball and Cricket teams this programme is important to develop all other sports.
We have to develop sports through Sports and Education Ministry activities.
The Sports Ministry Consultant Sudath Chandrasekara invited all officials to this event. Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe said he had discussions with all past 14 sports ministers and got their ideas last week to make this programme a success.
We wanted to get support from the Education Ministry to uplift school sports as schools are the best place to develop sports. I wanted to request Education Minister to get extra time for the school daily timetable to focus on sports and my idea is to allocate another 2-3 hours after 1.30 pm for the students to involve in sports and to have coordination between School Sports Bodies and the respective National Bodies.
The Minister also said that sports should be included as a subject for G.C E A/L and give priority for school athletes.
Sports pools should be formed at Divisional, District and Provincial levels to provide talented athletes to focus on National and International meets.
The Commonwealth Games wrestling bronze medal winner Nethmi Ahinsa from Pannala requested to make arrangements to add Sports as a subject for the G.C.E A/ L and we have to consider this. In addition, we requested to form a Sports Faculty at the National University and hope Education Minister and the Higher Education Commissioner Dr. Sampth Amatathunga who were present will address this issue, said Sports Minister.
The Eastern Province Governor Mrs. Anuradha Yahampath said this type of programme is very important and asked for qualified coaches for the Eastern Province and to have a talent search programme at Provincial level. The Central Province Governor Lalith U Gamage pointed out the value of the Provincial level grounds and sports officials commitment. He also reminded when he was in Galle as a senior lawyer he and former Minister Richard Pathirana worked hard to get international venue for Galle.
A J.M Muzammil the Uva Province Governor said most of the Sports Bodies top officials are not willing to discuss this type of programme but they should support to make this a success.
The Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said the request by the Sports Minister is very important and wanted to discuss with the Education officials and get approval from the Cabinet for this programme.
The Chairman of the National Sports Council Arjuna Ranatunga said that we have to select medal-winning sports to focus more. By introducing more sports at school we can make more healthy students and develop sports.
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