It’s the right decision - Parents welcome ISSA’s move to cancel sports this term
Published:Tuesday | August 25, 2020 | 12:16 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) Vice-President Stewart Jacobs, believes that the decision by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) to cancel sporting competitions for the upcoming school term, was inevitable given the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
ISSA made the announcement in a release yesterday, effectively cancelling the 2020 schoolboy football season. ISSA cited the delay of the phased physical reopening of schools being a factor in the decision.
Jacobs says that the decision made by ISSA President Keith Wellington and his administration was the right one, as the current health environment would not have allowed any competitions to have taken place safely.
“It was the reasonable, responsible thing that Mr Wellington and his team have done. They have looked at the situation I think [and] they have allowed good sense to prevail,” Jacobs said. “From the NPTAJ’s [perspective] we [predicted] that there was going to be a spike in waves and that the atmosphere would not be conducive to have our children participate in any competitive, active sports at this time.”
SURGE IN CASES
In response to the recent surge of coronavirus cases in the island, the Ministry of Education pushed back the beginning of the academic year, which is now scheduled for October 5.
ISSA was awaiting a decision regarding approval for pre-season training and subsequently the season. However, Jacobs says that the schools’ inability to provide a bubble-type environment and guarantee safety, was too much of a hurdle for any competition to happen this year.
“We know that the schools aren’t equipped with the necessary services to have a bubble existing for them for the season. Parents would be apprehensive to send their kids out of the home bubble to have them participate in an environment that there was no guarantee of control,” he said. “Outside of apprehension, there was genuine fear and the fear that we still know nothing about COVID-19.”
Amid speculation of a January start to schoolboy football, Wellington did not rule out the possibility in an August 13 interview with The Gleaner.
In yesterday’s release, ISSA said that they will now use the next eight weeks to assess the conditions of the revised, phased reopening of schools and would develop a new timetable for competitions when conditions are suitable.
“We are committed to ensuring that at the earliest possible opportunity we will re-engage our students in our various competitions, as we play our part in bringing back some sense of normalcy to their wholesome development,” the statement read.