By Neto Baptiste
The onus is on parents to ensure their child or children are placed within a learning institution that best suit their needs from both an academic and sporting perspective.
This is the view of principal of the Princess Margaret School (PMS) Dr Colin Greene who was, at the time, responding to concerns regarding a practice by some schools to not compete at the Inter-schools’ track and field championships while also not allowing athletes from their school to compete under their banner.
“Parents have to make parental decisions as to what they want for their children and only parents can make those kind of decisions and every parent in this country has the right to get their child into an institution that satisfies their outlook on education. I have always said, and people have said to me that with all the conditions at YASCO then why you don’t boycott? But I am not going to boycott anything because the point is that it is the children who are going out there, so it is not a personal decision,” he said.
Reports coming out of last weekend’s championships suggest that a number of student-athletes could not compete at the event owing to the fact that their respective schools were not registered to take part in the meet.
Greene believes that even though some schools could not field a full team that those students willing to compete should have been registered by their respective institutions.
“There are schools that took a decision not to come to Inter-schools for one reason or the other and some of those schools have good athletes so my questions is, even if you were not going to send a whole [team] then why not register the athlete? But it’s not really my business because I would say to those parents that if they are looking for a place for that child to go, then they can come talk to me because if you have good quality and you don’t want to use it then, we will show you how to use it,” he said.
PMS won both the boys’ and girls’ divisions of the Inter-schools Track & Field Championships held at the YASCO Sports Complex last weekend.
They amassed a total of 302 points in the boys’ category to dominate second placed Ottos Comprehensive School (OCS) who finished with 124 points, and Clare Hall Secondary School (CHSS) in third with 88 points.
PMS then amassed 310 points to take the girls’ category ahead of OCS with 136 points while All Saints Secondary School (ASSS) finished third with 60 points.