By Tovin Ngombe
Sinazongwe District Chairperson for Basic Schools Sports (BSS) has appealed to government to rescind its decision for withdrawing from funding School sports activities because it is hurting the game.
Oliver Mpile said for the past two years government has not been funding sports activities in Schools.
Mpile told ZANIS at the Sinazongwe BSS competitions at Kanchindu Basic Shool that the sports attire that pupils were using was bought at the time government was funding them.
He said Schools were not allowed to allocate grants they receive from government to any Sports activity.
Mr. Mpile said the Schools were only allowed to buy equipment for Physical Education (PE) because there was a presidential directive to do it.
“ For the past two years Schools in Sinazongwe have failed to buy sports attire because they been depending own there own fundraising ventures which was not enough to improve sports,†He said.
He said government’s withdrawal from funding was a drawback to the promotion of sports especially in rural areas where pupils had to be dragged for them to see the need of venturing into sports.
The BSS chairperson said teachers that were camping pupils to compete were doing it out of love for game because government was failing to supplement them with any subsistence allowance.
He said before teachers camped their pupils at Kanchindu Basic for five days they had again camped them for five days in their areas without any subsistence allowance.
He said the purpose for their having competitions at Kanchindu basic was to select a team that would compete at the provincial level and eventually at the national level.
Nkaddabwe Ward Councilor Partson Mangunje who was with the Schools through out the competition expressed disappointment at the parent’s failure to come to cheer their children.
Mr. Mangunje urged parents to be supporting their children to promote sports in the district.
He also made a passionate appeal to government to consider sponsoring sports in Schools if the country hopes to have future star players in all sports discipline.
ZANIS/TN/END
I do not agree with govt blindly funding any activity. I mean, the govt needs to be presented with plans/budgets. Otherwise, they would be pouring my money into a bottomless pit, providing the administrators the opportunity to fraudulently enrich themselves. But again, what do I know…that’s the norm for Zed isn’t it?