Radical changes in the Palaro

Ijoined a meeting initiated by Cebu City Councilor Joy Young yesterday on some of the radical ideas for the Palarong Pambansa. One that could virtually change the event is the notion of holding a separate Palaro for private and public schools.

There is the Prisaa for the private schools and for this year, the national finals of the Prisaa was even held together with the Palaro. However, most of the top private school athletes were in the Palaro and that could be a factor why having a separate meet for public and private schools could be something that is difficult to implement.

I think also that given a choice, private school students would rather compete in the Palaro than in the Prisaa because of the prestige and history of the Palaro, which gathers the best of

I think also that given a choice, private school students would rather compete in the Palaro than in the Prisaa because of the prestige and history of the Palaro.

the best in the elementary and high school level.

However, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. Before the division meet, there are the unit and district meets (and the school meets even below that) and after the division meet, it’s the provincial and regional meets. I think DepEd can have the public schools – only and private schools – only meets below the division level, with the winners advancing the traditional way to the provincial or regional meets.

That way, the private schools are not deprived of joining a prestigious competition like the Palaro and be limited only to the Prisaa. To put it bluntly, comparing the Prisaa to the Palaro is like comparing an inter-sitio meet to the Cebu City Olympics.

There’s also another radical idea, to make the Palaro a competition by cities or LGUs, not by regions. At first glance, this could mean the number of participants would more than triple but it won’t necessarily be that case if we adopt the Batang Pinoy model.

There will still be a regional meet but instead of having the regionals as a process to select the region’s delegation, it merely becomes the qualifier. Say for football, in the Cviraa if Cebu City wins the gold, it advances to the Palaro and will be representing Cebu City. The same goes in other events--whether it’s a team contest or individual event.

One of the advantages is that it’s easier to prepare and coordinate as a division, rather than as a region. There’s also more identity in a division than in a region. It’s a pretty radical move but again, this isn’t impossible, it just needs out-of-the-box thinking.