Establishing a Philippine High School for Sports: The Benefits

Remember those amazing sports facilities at the New Clark City Sports Hub that were installed for the country's hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games last year? If things work out well, these facilities, along with the venues of the games last year, will be used for a much bigger purpose: to furthermore hone the skills of high school students in sports.

Earlier this week, the Senate, on the third and final reading, approved Senate Bill 1086, authored and sponsored by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian. The said bill, if approved by the president, will create the Philippine High School for Sports or PHSS. Unanimously approved by 21 senators in the said hearing, PHSS aims to stand as an educational institution which will primarily educate and guide Filipino students who are preparing to take a long-term career in sports.

While sports has been a major part of every student's education, the creation of PHSS will now mean that sports will be more than just a subject or an extra curricular activities.  PHSS will make sports the major subject of the school. 

Now, why is the creation of the PHSS good not just for Filipino students who wants to take a long-term career in sports but for the Filipino education system in general?

For one, it will benefit the indegenous inviduals, PWDs, and students from other marginalized sectors of the society because one of the objectives of the said creation is to ensure that will give an alternative and equitable admission process to give better access for the said groups to the specialized school. In addition to this, the said school will also provide full or partial scholarships with special emphasis on honing the althetic skills of the students. In other words, it's about honing the skills of our future athletes.

And for another, the said bill will allow the students to gain access to the sports facilities that were used during last year's SEA Games. According to Senator Gatchalian, the students can maximize the facilitiies at the New Clark City Sports Hub because if these facilities won't be used for other purposes, then we're wasting them. And that makes sense.

If the bill goes on to become a law upon getting the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte, this will be good not just for the future of Philippine sports but for the Filipino students in general- especially those who belong to the marginalized sectors who are talented in sports but couldn't afford to go to school. 

Photo is from Spot.ph