Joy saddened by DepEd’s bungled job in Palaro

Finally, DepEd 7’s poor finish in the Palarong Pambansa elicited a strong reaction from Councilor Joy Young, the deputy mayor for education in Cebu City. Though Cebu City forms but a part of the delegation, its athletes form the majority of the team.

Young criticized Dr. Luz Jandayan, the chief of Education Support Service Division of DepEd 7, for leaving for Canada right when the delegation was meeting. Dr. Jandayan, who is retiring this year, defend herself by saying she delegated a person in charge for the preparations. I’ll let you be the judge of that. However, there are two other points Young raised, one valid and one that may be impractical.

Young, the man behind the Milo Little Olympics and the Cebu City Olympics, criticized DepEd’s requirement for champion teams to pick up players from the losing teams, usually the runner-up.

It’s an age-old problem in the DepEd meet for coaches as they are forced to drop the players with whom they got to the Palarong Pambansa. Jandayan said it is to give chances to players “who have potentials but didn’t win in the regional meet.” And I think it’s a load of crap.

In individual events, second placers may have a good day and beat the champion, but in team events, some stars of the losing team may not be even good enough to make the champion team’s bench.

Coaches should have the final say whether they’d pick up reinforcements or not, they are the ones who know their teams better, not DepEd. And what happens if a few members of the losing team gets chosen? DepEd then has to assign chaperones/officials for them for the Palaro, adding to the number of tourists...er...officials in the delegation.

Jandayan defended DepEd 7’s move by saying that it was something they’ve agreed upon but who is this “they?” A few coaches have told me that they’d wish the media would cover Region 7’s solidarity meeting for the Palaro, so we would know how helpless coaches really are in having the final say in team composition.

One coach, I was told, preferred not to join the Palaro because he had to let go of the players he won with in favor of “losers.” So, it’s safe to say that the coaches are not part of the “they” that agreed to this setup.

Young also said that he will propose to DepEd to bar private schools from the Palaro, saying they have the Private Schools Athletic Association step-ladder meet. But this is something that may not be advisable. The Prisaa is for member-schools only and in Cebu, starts with the 12-member Cesafi meet. If your school isn’t a member of the Cesafi, then you have no chance of joining the meet.

Unless, Councilor Young can force Prisaa or Cesafi to let any private school join their meet, then this move will only alienate the promising athletes from small private schools.