By Aminu Garko
Kano, The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Education, Kontagora, Prof. Faruk Rashid-Haruna, has urged universities and colleges to treat sports as part of their educational mission to develop sporting activities in the country.
Rashid-Haruna made the call on Thursday in Kano in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 54th National Conference and Workshop of the Nigeria Association for Physical, Health Education, Recreation, Sports and Dance, NAPHER-SD.
He urged universities and colleges to evaluate sports programmes using participation, learning, health and integrity outcomes, not medal counts alone.
the conference has as its theme: “Transparency, Integrity and Accountability in Sports, Health and Education”.
His paper was titled: “Legal, Ethical and Governance Considerations in Global and Collegiate Sports.”
He said universities, government agencies, sports associations and professional educators must work together to ensure that physical education, health education, recreation, sports and dance fulfil their wider purposes of improving health, developing character, strengthening inclusion and preparing responsible citizens.
“Sport should reward excellence, but excellence must include honesty, safety, fairness and responsibility.
“A competition that produces medals while sacrificing integrity is not a successful educational or sporting system,” he said.
He said government and public authorities should develop a coherent national framework for integrity in sport that connects anti-corruption, athlete welfare, safeguarding, health and education.
“Provide predictable funding for university sports and require transparent reporting as a condition of public support.
“Strengthen the capacity of relevant regulatory, anti-corruption, medical and dispute-resolution institutions.
“Support the development and maintenance of safe, accessible and inclusive facilities rather than concentrating resources only on elite competition,” he said.
Earlier, the National President of NAPHER-SD, Prof. Florence Adeyanju, said the conference provided a platform for initiating reforms that would move the sector forward.
Adeyanju said transparency, integrity and accountability in sports were important to the development of sports.
She said stakeholders had a responsibility to prepare athletes to make them successful.
Adeyanju said the conference also provided them with an opportunity to share knowledge among participants because not everything was learnt in the classroom.