Children throughout St. Vincent, Grenada and Tobago will have the chance to participate in special Game On! Youth Sports programs that are slated for several schools in the coming months.
This series of school pilot programs, which are endorsed by the Caribbean Community Physical Education Advisory Committee (CARICOM), will impact hundreds of children ages 7-11. Game On! is a program of the International Alliance For Youth Sports (IAYS) and for the purpose of the pilot it will be run as a regular class during school hours.
“The program is intended to be an ongoing part of the primary school curriculum, essentially fulfilling the needs and filling the gap of physical education,” said Mark Mungal, the Caribbean representative for the IAYS. “It is expected that the Game On! program will remain an integral part of the education of children and that as it becomes institutionalized that we will continue to build on the foundation that is being formed through our current efforts.”
One of the highlights of these pilot programs is that an in-depth research study will be compiled to gauge the impact of Game On! on the participants.
“We want to know if the Game On! program is meeting the CARICOM physical education standards,” Mungal said. “Secondly, we want to find out what is working, what is not and how we can improve on the program implementation; and thirdly, we want to recognize the power of Game On! in creating positive changes among children who participate in the program.”
The research project will be focused on the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach as teachers and students will be asked to respond to a questionnaire that highlights the most significant changes that have resulted from their Game On! involvement.
“From this research we will seek to prove that Game On! is an excellent tool for the development of the overall well-being of children, specific to the Caribbean,” said Kerish Maharaj, the sport development officer for the Trinidad & Tobago Alliance for Sport and Physical Education (TTASPE). “It will also aid us in modifying Game On! to suit the unique needs of the Caribbean people and give the IAYS hard data evidence of the viability of Game On!”
In St. Vincent the schools that are participating are C.W. Prescod Primary, Kingston Preparatory, Sion Hill Government School and Stubbs Government. Schools in Grenada and Tobago haven’t been selected yet.
“The schools are chosen based on the ability of the teachers and their expertise, the level of commitment, the willingness of the school principals to adopt the program in the schools and the available facilities to conduct the program,” Maharaj said.
A three-day workshop was recently held in St. Vincent to identify teachers best suited to oversee the Game On! pilot programs in its schools. The training process consisted of theoretical and practical activities, as teachers were evaluated on how they interacted with the kids and how effective they were in creating skill stations, among many other areas.Similar workshops are on tap for Grenada and Tobago. The workshops are supported by TTASPE, IAYS and the Australian Sports Commission, as part of the Australian Sport Outreach Program in the Caribbean.
“For each island, we determine the schools at the end of the workshop based on visits to the school, interaction with the teachers and recommendations from the Ministry of Education on the relevant island,” Maharaj said.
Mungal’s efforts communicating with the Ministry of Sport and Education for each respective island resulted in the workshops being set up – and paved the way for the Game On! program to be run in the schools.
“To get the okay from the relevant government authorities, Mark wrote to each Ministry of Sport and Education introducing Game On! and highlighted the basis for the pilot,” Maharaj said. “The Ministries then coordinated the actual hosting of the workshops, set dates and gave approval for primary school teachers to attend and partake in the workshop and pilot.”
The IAYS, through its Global Gear Drive, will distribute sports equipment to each of the schools that are chosen to participate, along with Game On! manuals. The teachers will conduct the sessions guided by the Game On! principles, which involves teaching fundamental motor skills through games and modified sports activities.
“Each government was very eager to host the pilot,” Maharaj said. “They understand the benefits of this research and the Game On! program to the development of their citizens and the Caribbean population. It has the potential to dramatically affect positive change in the lives of the Caribbean population through solid human development principles using sport.” | 
