Golf booms at Anna Regina Multilateral as sport continues to expand across schools in Guyana
Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary School, which placed second in the National Golf School competition in 2021, will have the largest number of students being moderated for golf as their Physical Education elective.
A record 51 students from Anna Regina Secondary will be taking golf for PE this year in their Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate examination.
Aleem Hussain, President of the Guyana Golf Association (GGA) was elated with the growth of the sport as it embarks on this landmark achievement where Guyanese students will be examined on golf as their Physical Education elective for CSEC for the first time.
“This milestone of having students actually write golf at CXC level shows the commitment that the schools and Ministry of Education has made towards the development of golf in Guyana and the extra-ordinary effort by these students.”
A total of 114 students will be doing golf for CXC this year, inclusive of learners from President's College, Rosignol, Friendship, and Wisburg Secondary schools.
“The way they learned the game in a very short space of time, the dedication by the PE teachers and all the administrators who really got behind the game really put a lot of effort into the game.”
The implementation of golf in schools came at a time when virtually all sports were shut down due to Covid-19.
The programme was quickly adopted by Lorraine Barker-King, Head of the Ministry of Education's Allied Arts Unit and became one of the fastest growing sports within Secondary schools.
At present, the sport is played among upper levels with all but three regions now active in teaching golf to its 11th and 12th grade learners.
“In less than a year we’ve been able to go from introduction to the syllabus to teaching in the schools to actually taking the subject as a PE elective.”
The initiative saw NexGen Golf Academy providing training, equipment and facilities and the MOE providing PE Teachers and resources for the 'Train the Trainer' programme which allowed the sport to reach into 102 secondary schools in just 15 months.
“You cannot say enough about how great these students have performed, and based on the responses from the moderators they have excelled in a very short space of time and that gives us great hope for the future.”
There are currently plans to expand the sport to Primary schools in regions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9.
This comes as the Golf Association builds towards creating a national and Olympic team.
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