Edwin Amankwah, a former student athlete during his Senior High School and University days has called for a dialogue to improve the current academic calendar which causes limitations in producing top athletes in the country.
He was speaking in an interview on Happy 98.9FM on the back of Ghana’s recent performance at the just-ended World Athletics Championship in Oregon and also on why the country is losing most of its athletes to the corporate world.
According to him, the current academic calendar in the various educational institutions does not allow athletes to develop because of inadequate time for preparations due to a hectic academic period. He stated that the nature of the academic calendar does not allow athletes to get ample time to train and participate in competitions and also combine their books.
Mr. Amankwah made reference to an instance when he had to write a quiz whilst in Level 200 at the University of Ghana ahead of a race.
During his interview on Happy Sports, he proposed that for Ghana to get more athletes from schools, there must be a conscious and intentional effort in restructuring the current academic calendar to ensure athletes get the needed time to combine sports and athletics.
“First of all let’s relook at the calendar of our sports activities at the various levels of education institutions. There should be a collaboration between the two Ministries- Education and Sports. Building on the collaborative efforts, we must get a plan from experts to help with the system in terms of scouting, building training facilities, developing our facilities, and also getting opportunities for students who have expressed interest in athletics.” Mr. Amankwah noted
“We must be able to groom talents in Ghana and also build facilities here for them to train. If we have to push it then we need a national agenda together which will involve proper investment.” he added.
By Herbert Boakye Yiadom
