2 months ago
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Overseas transfer students looking to participate in competitions run by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) will be subjected to a waiting period of one year before gaining eligibility.
High-school sports’ governing body ISSA, in a press release, highlighted the new change in its transfer policy.
“All students transferring from a secondary institution outside of Jamaica will be subject to a waiting period of one year before becoming eligible to participate in ISSA-organised competitions, irrespective of age. These students will also now be regarded as members of the school’s quota for each sport,” part of the press release said.
The policy covers all sporting disciplines under ISSA’s control.
After making his presentation at the launch of the ISSA Manning and daCosta Cup football competitions at Stadium East on Wednesday evening, Keith Wellington, the ISSA president, explained to The Gleaner that this was done to protect the limited resources in the country and ensure that Jamaicans get the most out of what is available.
“Part of our responsibility is to develop our nation’s children. We have to ensure that they benefit from what the schools have to offer, and we feel that there comes a time when we have to ensure that the limited resources must be properly channelled to what our objectives are,” the ISSA president said.
“We aren’t preventing anyone from abroad from coming to Jamaica to study, but we have to put a cap on how many go to a particular school so that we don’t have one school spending an inordinate amount of their resources on non-Jamaicans,” he said.
Wellington added that the policy falls in line with ISSA’s forward-thinking on using innovative strategies each year to develop and enhance the local product.
“If we are to grow the product, we have to look at innovative ways each year to change the landscape. The monotony doesn’t work in today’s world, so we have to look at what we can do differently to ensure that people remain interested in the sport,” Wellington stated.
Continuing, the ISSA president, who is also principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School, says he is excited ahead of the upcoming schoolboy football season, which is set to kick off on September 7.
Wellington explained that the season not only gives a jolt of energy to football-loving supporters, but also to school administrators.
“We know that the biggest entertainment from football in Jamaica comes from schoolboy competitions. There’s just a different atmosphere in the first term of school. Therefore, we look forward to that when the student athletes really enjoy being at school due to all the hype around the sport,” he stated.
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