By Nesisa Ejiro
It was a moment of joy over the weekend as Dommingos College, Warri in Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State organized its 18th Annual Inter-house sports completion. In her address at the ceremony, the Principal of the College, Mrs. Okpakpor F.O. said games are essential parts of school curricular activities as they provide for the physical well-being of the learners adding, as the saying goes, sound bodies possess sound minds adding, this informed the State Ministry of Education in line with the National Policy on Education ensures that sports activities are organized not only within schools but between other schools within and outside the state .
The Principal said, students learn about life on this platform generally and have the spirit of competiveness saying, with determination; they can win even though times are tough. She said, the inter-house sporting activities are put together for the students to have life experience.
According to her, from records so far, it has been proved that many great men and women have been successful in life through sporting activities adding that the college has won various prizes in sports within and outside the state. She added, for the avoidance of doubt, at present, the there are students from the college who came out first in the state in basket ball, now in Asaba to compete with other states of the federation.
She said:” As you all know, games are essential parts of school curricular activities as they provide for the physical well-being of the learners. … For this reason, the State Ministry of Education in line with the National Policy on Education ensures that sports activities are organized not only within schools, but between other schools within and outside the zone. From records so far, it has been proved, it has been a successful exercise as great sports men and women have emerged from such outings”.
According to her, this is the only school that there are special students in the state apart from Asaba, the state capital adding that, at present, they are close to ninety students in this college just as she said, their population keeps on increasing everyday due to awareness . She said, the special learners in the school are often ignored when it comes to activities as most of their needs are not taken into consideration as these affect their learning process.
Mrs. Okpakpor said one critical area one needs to look at is how to incorporate special learners into all the learning process saying, despite the fact that, they can not talk, and hear, does not mean, they are not important to themselves and the society at large as in every disability, there is ability adding, this can be seen for the day as they engaged in match past and other sporting activities.
The Principal added that for these special children to be incorporated into the society, everybody must play his or her roles just as did because, she has passion for them. She said, it is against this backdrop that the school embarked on different skills acquisition programmes such as barbing, tailoring , how to cook, baking, among others. According to her, when they learn these skills, upon graduation after six years, they would have something to fall back to.
She said:” I have passion for these children and because of that passion, I have decided in my little way to create some skills acquisition programmes Therefore in the school, we have decided to create a barbing salon for them to have barbing skills, a make-up where they are being trained on how to do a good make- up, tie Igele, sewing, for them to know how to sew, learn how to cook and know how to bake among others so that, when they learn these various activities and graduate after six years, they would have something to fall back to”.
The Principal therefore this used this medium to appeal for support by way donations from well meaning Nigerians and corporate organizations among others for, apart from making the main field of the school fit to enable them engage in sporting activities, items such as discus, shot put and other sporting equipment that can be used to make the inter-house sports more interesting should be provided for the school’s future development of sporting activities.
While welcoming everybody for the inter-house sports competition, she promised that, it would be an interesting for the day and asked the invited guests to sit back and enjoy themselves as the events would be competitive saying, the students were really trained for the events of the day.
The Principal used the occasion to thank the outgoing Governor of the state, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Commissioner for the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, the Chief Inspection of Education, Warri South and of course, the host Community for their roles in ensuring that the school experience speedy growth and development over the years.
The Inter-house sports which featured six houses namely: Green, Red, Yellow, Purple, White and Blue which saw White House emerging 1st position with 97 points, Yellow House, 2nd with 80 points while Red House came 3rd with 79 points, climaxed with the awards of prizes to the winners amidst jubilation.