Western Province Education Ministry makes sports hell for children

Western Province Department of Education last weekend made the life miserable for students who are participating in sports by conducting their under-17 and under-20 basketball tournaments in a deplorable manner.

Although usually for these events, match officials from Sri Lanka Basketball Referee’s Association will be brought in, the Western Province Department of Education conducted the event in an unprofessional manner using PTIs of schools to officiate games. Most of these PTIs had not played the game of basketball and there were errors in officiating denying children an opportunity to play under the supervision of a qualified match official.

All participants had been asked to report to match venue by 6:30am but for some schools their matches didn’t take place even until noon and poor children had to hang around in school premises without doing anything. This shows the incompetence of government officials and lack of concern for the wellbeing of schoolchildren.

Games at certain venues went up to midnight some days causing much discomfort and hassle for children and parents.

Furthermore, parents had been banned from coming to the venues to witness these games. It denied children an opportunity to showcase their skills to parents while parents missed out on seeing how good their children were performing in their chosen sport. Some teams complained that the parents were purposely kept out of the venues as PTIs who had been assigned to officiate games were incompetent.

We contacted Dhammika Kulatunga, Deputy Director (Physical Education and Sports), Western Province Education Department for a comment. However, she refused to give a comment over the phone.