Grenada: The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports, developed the new sports programme in the various primary schools of Grenada to tackle obesity at that level on March 17, 2022.
Curriculum Officer for physical education Denver Welsh said it is an issue they hope to reverse among the nation’s students, especially coming out 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. 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”, Welsh underscored.
Welsh was one of the facilitators at a joint workshop between the ministries of education and sports held on Wednesday, March 17, 2022.
The aim of the workshop is to equip primary school students with the fundamentals relating to sports and physical education, which will make it easier to transition to the secondary school level.
In the workshop, the curriculum minister for physical education listed fitness as one of the many expected results of the new programme being developed.
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. 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”.
Earlier, the new wing at the St Mark Secondary School was commissioned, and two older wings upgraded development, and the wider community welcomed it on March 17, 2022.
It has been a long time coming, but the upgrades have put an end to cramp facilities and leaky proofs students of three forms.
They have been moved into the new wing in an environment, and the acting principal Caris Degannes says it 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 block replaces temporary structures that have been sitting on the school’s hardcourt for years.
She stated:
- 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.
- We are very appreciative when those were removed from the court, and then we have these additional three classrooms added that’s its placed within the compounds of the institution.
The upgrades now also mean that the 490 members of the student’s body can now go back to play the basket and netball.
While completing the new wing of the St Mark Secondary School was built, there were also upgrades to two older wings.
“Yes, so we had an upgrade done to this wing. We call it the middle black and also the bottom block that house form fifth one students and one form of three classrooms. So, we didn’t get an entirely new structure, but it was refurbished,” she underscored.
She noted:
- We have new stages.
- We had new divisions added to separate our classrooms.
- The entire roof was redone, and we are happy about that.
Acting principal Deganns hail the end of the era of leaky roofs. Prior to this, the students of the schools had to be jumping puddles.
