Lawrence Bruce: UNESCO Should Show Greater Interest in Sports Education

He said physical education in schools, which is a gateway to grooming upcoming athletes, has now become very meaningless. According to him, physical education has a complete disconnection in schools.

Bruce was one of the speakers during a plenary session on the Olympic Games Sports as a Platform for Educating Youth in the sixth world forum on Sport, Education and Culture. "In the Gambia, Physical education in schools is not like it use to be as it is not existing in some of schools. This is agrave issue as the country's youthful population isabout 40% and you hardly see a lot of them taking part in sports which is manifested by our country's representation in thejust concluded Olympic games", he narrated.

He said efforts to standardized physical education in schools is needed to promote the growth of sports.

"Though the idea behind the Olympic game is not about winning medals but there should be programmes set up by national Olympic Committees before and after the games to keep young people interested and well informed on the movement", said a delegate from Senegal.

However, the need for more co-ordination between governments and UNESCO to promote sport education in schools and training of teachers were the words of the day.

Reacting to the intervention, Kamal Guemmar, Presidnet of CIGEPS and UNESCO representative at the forum said, in terms of educational aspects, IOC and UNESCO will collaborate more based on recommendations made.

He pointed out that there is need to re-emphasized the importance of sports education in schools.