The Negros Oriental National High School, better known to locals as N.O., is the only school in Central Visayas designated as beneficiary of an annual appropriation of half-a-million pesos to fund a DepEd special program in sport (SPS).
There are other 16 regional high schools tasked to implement the SPS and crafting the vision, mission, objectives and curricular content of the program is a formidable challenge faced by the technical working group assigned to do this.
Last June 7, I received the following email from Dr. Philip Ella Juico, former chair of the Philippine Sports Commission, and for the past several years had been advocating for structural and substantive changes in physical education and school sports for children and youth:
“My meeting with Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro was a very good meeting. In fact, he said it was very timely. Following points were discussed in the presence of his staff Kurt Cendana:
“1. His first priority is for us to assist him in reviewing and revisiting MAPEH and aligning it to the K+12.
“2. As a result of that review, we can then reassess the sports schools bearing in mind he has a commitment (as he has in the science schools) that those with special sports talents will be given supplementary funding WITHOUT neglecting those who don’t have special skills and talents but need a good PE program. He agrees we have to make sports more egalitarian and we can get those Olympic medals if we have the proper strategy hinged on mass based sports and properly run children’s and youth sports.
“3. I told Br Armin and Kurt to look at President Ramos executive order creating the National Physical Fitness and Sports Development Council, the literature on Philsports, the UN materials on covenants on physical education, rights of children, etc. You may wish to add to the literature review so I can relay to them.
“4. We discussed youth and children’s sports and he said we’re all on the same page with respect to adults imposing their values on what should be fun sports at an early age.
“5. I invited him to Foundation U as template. Overall, it’s looking good. Reformulating MAPEH is his priority and he’s looking at us as his main advisers and we can eventually re-craft the sports schools concept. Looks like we have our work cut out for us.”
The FU templates that Dr. Juico cited, indeed, could serve the need for restructuring the MAPEH, a subject in the curriculum which integrates, to my mind, a most unfortunately situation: four different subjects of music, arts, physical education, and health.
I need not elaborate on the unsoundness of lumping these four disciplines into one but that is what we have in the school curriculum, and we have to implement the subject with all its constraints.
The template physical education and sports program of FU is founded on principles and prescriptions of the UN, specifically the International Charter of Physical Education & Sport, Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Task Force on Sport for the Millennium Development Goals, and books on children’s sports like Reiner Martens’ Joy and Sadness in Children’s Sports.
Article 1 of the ICPES proclaims that “PE and sport is a fundamental right for all.” Article 32 of the CRC says that “children have the right to play and recreation.” The MDG Task Force for Sports recommends to member countries “not to use sports for the creation of new sporting heroes but in its broader context for health, education, social development, communication, partnership, and peace.” Dr. Martens reminds sports educators that, “Sports should be thought of as a double-edged sword capable of cutting in opposite directions. The direction that the sword cuts depends on those who swing the sword itself.”
The implications of these UN charters’ principles and advisories is embodied in FU’s sports motto: “Apil Tanan”, regardless of talent, gender or social status.
Sports also is a medium for character formation and inculcation among participants of the traditional and old-aged universal values.
Sports for health component of the FU program is concretized in its promotion of a “walking culture” embodied in the PCSO-supported “Wellness Walk”, a program which makes walking a quarter marathon 10.5km a requirement in its PE classes, and a year-round walking and running clinic which aims to train “walkers for life” as a form of lifetime exercise.
The highly-rated Dumaguete Adventure Marathon (DAM) is also part of this program in addition to its advocacy for rice conservation and eco-tourism.
Sports for education in FU is emphasized in the varsity sports policy and practice where athletes must adhere to the requirement for membership: “Academics first, championships second.”
Likewise, FU varsity sports program is judged not on the number of medals, trophies, and championships won, but on the number of athletes who win their academic diplomas.
FU is forging a Memorandum of Agreement with the City whereby coaches in the barangays will be trained and accredited to provide the leadership in community sports. These coaches will be given the opportunity to obtain certificates and diplomas which could, through sustained participation, provide them with academic credentials that will enhance their status and insure lifetime engagement in community sports undertakings.
Sports for social development in carried out in FU’s campaign called: “Virtues and Values in Sports.” The medium for this campaign consists of the following: a) Sports Covenant forged and signed by some 77 initial covenanters coming from all parts of Negros Oriental and Siguijor who pledged to observed in the staging and participation in sporting events a policy of no cheating, no violence, no substance abuse, respect for authority, friendship and camaraderie, and environmental stewardship.
The validity of this covenant was illustrated when FU imposed a one-year ban on the participation of a young boy and his coach who were found to have cheated in a football tournament organized by another school, in all FU-organized sports events.
FU likewise wrote the NORFA demanding the suspension of a coach who inflicted violence on one of its coaches during a regional football tournament.
FU varsity players also recite regularly in their practice sessions a Sports Credo where they proclaim their belief in doing things the better way, to be brave and have no fear, to be warriors of peace, and through their sporting life serve God, country, community and family.
The IYSPeace PE instructors and coaching staff devote their time to inspire in the students and athletes virtues and values of courage and self-respect, discipline and hard work, courtesy and humility, teamwork and caring for others.
Sports for communication is effectively used by FU in projecting the university’s various institutional advocacy.
For example, the football teams’ jerseys bear the logo of the 350.org, a world-wide movement calling for the reduction of the carbon content of the atmosphere by eliminating or minimizing the use of fossil fuel.
FU passionately campaigns for adopting a better way of teaching young people symbolized by the iPad program. Varsity teams display in playing venues streamers that say: “FU-Home of the iPad Sports Generation–An Advocacy for Quality Education.” It is reported that other institutions in the University Town will soon follow the example of FU.
FU sports has through the years secured and sustained its partnership with the local governments in Negros Oriental manifested by the support extended at the staging of the annual marathon and wellness walks.
Among its partners for the staging of sporting events are Robinsons Mall Dumaguete, Dumaguete Business Park, Inc., Hypermart, Asia Rice Foundation, RAFI, and the Rice Research Institute.
Sports for peace is the flagship sports program of FU symbolized by the Institute of Youth Sports for Peace founded in July 7, 2007. The IYSPeace was created as an “experiment in peace-building though sports.” It was cited as one of the “innovations in Asian PE and sports” published in a UNESCO-funded book in 2008.
The IYSPeace “Children & Youth@Play” program embodies all the principles above-cited: sports participation for all children and young people, virtues and values in sports, education and health as fundamental concerns of the the most multi-dimensional components of culture that is–sports.
With the anticipated completion of the building to house the Children&Youth@Play this year, the templates for actualizing the vision and mission of the UN MDG Sports for development and peace will be found at Foundation University. With the assistance of the IYSPeace staff, the same templates may be adopted in the special program for sports at the NONHS.
