Sport Company of TT (SporTT) chairman Douglas Camacho says a decrease in volunteerism among teachers as it relates to sports at schools has "waned the whole ethos of sport as a critical component of educating."

He was speaking at a parliamentary Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee meeting on Wednesday morning.

In Trinidad and Tobago, Camacho said, the responsibility for direct intervention in sport in primary and secondary schools was "moved from the many juggles of various ministries" throughout his 52 years in sport administration.

He said only within the last 20-30 years has it been assigned to the Ministry of Education, which has been a challenge.

"The spirit of volunteerism that prevailed when I was an athlete in my youth seems to not be as prevalent.

"Teachers don't volunteer their time as readily as back in the day, after hours."

He said some parents are also responsible for the relevance of sports declining in schools, as they "make it a binary choice for a child: sport or your studies.

"And sadly, in our environment, very often that means is they go to school, supposedly for the study part of the education, and then when they leave school, they have to go to the same classes for the same thing all over again, taking up time from sport."

He said it is something he has seen for the last couple of decades.

Because of this, he said, the company approached the Education Ministry with a bipartisan approach "to see how we can bring back sports into schools in a meaningful way."

In March, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Sport Minister Shamfa Cudjoe visited Jamaica to continue bilateral talks on improving sports at the school level in TT.

Camacho said this was critical.

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