Fair Play: DepEd's bizarre move

WHEN I first heard of the “elimination tournament” to determine Central Visayas’ representatives to the Palarong Pambansa, I readily dismissed it.

I mean, the Department of Education, for all its failings and miscues, couldn’t do something that bizarre could it?


It turns out it could.

This is really weird, it would be like the Comelec doing a special election to choose the country’s next president three months after holding the presidential elections.

Does it make sense? You tell me.

It’s a waste of money and only demoralizes the athletes.

The purpose of having the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association Meet is to determine Cviraa’s representatives to the Palarong Pambansa.

Or has DepEd changed that, too?

And if DepEd can just hold an “elimination tournament” to determine Region 7’s representatives, why bother having the Cviraa at all?

And going by that logic, why bother having the City Olympics, or Provincial Meet, at all, if DepEd can just have an elimination tournament?

This elimination tournament is a waste of money, time and effort.

“Wa na gyud ko kasabot nila,” said one coach while shaking his head as we talked about
DepEd’s move yesterday.

Instead of giving the Cviraa winners the right to celebrate their victory after months of hard work, DepEd is putting their dreams in a limbo.

I always had a mouthful to say when it comes to the way the Decs (the forerunner of DepEd) meets were ran when I was in high school but I am proud to say the folks back home got things right when it comes to player selections.

For individual events, the gold medalist, or if there are spots for them too, the silver and bronze medalists, represent the team.

For team events, the champion team’s coach has the right to go solid, or pick up a few reinforcements from the losing teams.

The selection process was finished, at the latest, an hour after the finals because any coach worth his salt knows what his team needs and who to pick.

But for DepEd Region 7? Three months after the Cviraa they still want to hold an elimination tournament?

Do these people know what they are doing?

They decided to hold the Cviraa three months early, so they could prepare for the Palaro three-months early, and this is what happens?

This reminds me, one of the goals of Cebu City Sports Commission for its Sports Institute is to help Region 7 win the Palarong Pambansa title in 2013. They want to do that by training athletes.

You know what? With this latest foul-up from DepEd, perhaps the CCSC should train DepEd. They could start that by explaining to the people running the Cviraa what the Cviraa is all about.

PRISAA’S A MESS, TOO. By the way, it’s not only DepEd 7 that’s a mess. The Prisaa is a mess, too, with some school heads calling for a boycott of the national games.

This is somewhat more disappointing. With a government institution like DepEd and its track record, you somehow learn to accept that they will foul things up.

But with private groups like the Prisaa? You somehow expect the school owners and presidents are level-headed enough to know what is right and wrong.

The call for a boycott of the games isn’t a failure of the leadership, it merely shows the lack of communication in this group.

For me, calling for a boycott of an event just to prove a point is the ultimate unsportsmanlike conduct.

How would these owners feel if the students of their schools call their own boycott?

Comments

luckystrike said…
The reason DepEd is behaving this way is pure and simple politicking because the other cities/provinces have "complained" that its always Cebu City players that represent the CVIRAA. For example, for last year's High School Football team to the CVIRAA, winning coach Ceniza only picked one reinforcement from Cebu province, yet they won the silver medal in Palaro-a feat few Cebu teams can claim the last few years, basketball included. Now the DepEd doesnt even trust this same coach to make the right decision for his elementary team this time around. The reasons for avoiding reinforcements are two-fold: one, it will take many weeks, even months, for the reinforcement(s) to learn the system of the winning coach in a team sport like football. Secondly, does DepEd even have the budget to send these reinforcements to Cebu way ahead of time, train for weeks and allow them to miss their classes? He maybe very good in other areas but this is really one dumb-ass move by the regional director, one which even the Cebu City DepEd does not agree.

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