The Chairman, Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC), Sola Aiyepeku, on Monday said that the commission had adopted the American College Model of School Sports system for a proper and effective administration.
Aiyepeku made the revelation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on the heels of the commission’s plan to develop school sports in Lagos State.
The LSSC boss noted that the American system of school sports administration is more enduring and impactful, hence it would be the right model for schools sports in the state.
“We are in the process of making sure that our school sports is much impactful than what we have had before. Back then, before this administration, the school sports was almost dead and the infrastructures are not in good condition.
“We now have our own variation of North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), a model of American College system, which is about sports grading system.
“We have to go back to the basics, in the past year between 2019 and 2020, we have trained 600 to 700 games masters.
“We trained the games masters in the modern-day sports administration and techniques under our Lagos State School Sports Initiative Programme (LASSIP). For us in LSSC, training is important,” Aiyepeku said.
He further said that school sports is the basics for grassroots development of sports, hence, there was a need to create an enduring model for continuity.
“The grading system will afford us the opportunity to monitor the development of the our young athletes, we also have proper documentation for their progress in sports.
“We have created three divisions in our school sports which is ranking system where the sports are ranked according to their performance, we will release the grading system before the end of the school session.
“The idea is to choose sports that will be in the top spot. We will rate the sports according to their performance, the ones at the top spot will have funding that their division.
“The sports that are not matching up will drop down to the next division, while those that are doing well in the lower division will come up, this will increase competitions among the sports,” Aiyepeku said.
Aiyepeku revealed that the sports commission had been able to secure partnerships for funding and the development of school sports.
“We have also secured partnerships from the private sector for funding of our schools sports because government cannot fund it all.
“The private sector are now in support because they have seen that we have plans and what we have put on ground.
“We now have sponsors for volleyball, athletics, school sports, before the end of the year after the election, we will start programmes for the school sports in earnest.
“We now have a programme that will be long lasting and of course, a career plan for our students because we have a governor that is ready to support us,” he said.
