MAGAZINE: Osun School Calisthenics Competition:  Road To Grand Finale

 

As Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration winds down, one of his legacies and very best innovations is Calisthenics that has been institutionalised as school sport, attracting competitions from both private and public schools. KEHINDE AYANTUNJI in this report provides insights to the competition grand finale holding on Wednesday November 21, 2018 as part of activities to usher in the new administration.

By November 27, 2018, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s second term tenure will end as the Governor of the State of Osun.  Aregbesola is no doubt the architect of the modern Osun with unprecedented infrastructural development and social protection programmes that have redefined the State’s social and political spaces in  Nigerian. Indeed, as the Chief Executive of a State in Nigeria, his enormous contributions to redefining the meaning, in content and context, of the word “Federalism” is in itself only second to that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The path-breaking efforts of Ogbeni represent the process of consummation of modern Osun in all facets of life and more importantly, on education ranging from state-of-the-art school infrastructure, schools re-classification and curricular reorganisation, as well as the enforcement of discipline in schools to match the students’ character with aesthetic modern facilities. This is with a view of re-moulding their life by inculcating virtuous character in line with the new thinking and philosophy of the Governor.

In demonstration of  Aregbesola clear understanding of the import of behavioural attitude and orientation to human development, one of his very best innovations aside rebranding and value re-orientation,  was  calisthenics that is now  gaining momentum as perhaps, the fastest growing school sport  attracting competition from both Private and Public Schools.

At the beginning, many doubted its sustainability considering its huge financial responsibility and scarce human resources with skills and knowledge required to train and coordinate thousands of students from various background and orientation. Honestly, those fears were genuine as calisthenics is an organisation of massive events in terms of logistics, assemblage of human beings and precision amongst other difficult inputs.

With the virtual disappearance of co-curricular activities in public and private schools in Nigeria, Governor Aregbesola’s innovative solution is to bring in one such activity capable of engaging students in multitude, and as well delivering in the three domains of education all at once: the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains upon which the founding fathers of formal education rested it. Calisthenics uniquely pays the bill of knowledge, skill, vigour and agility and the teaching of morals and impacting of attitudes whose absence in citizens constitute one of the Nigeria’s biggest challenges today: discipline, precision, organisation, cooperation and orderliness, quite apart from aesthetics sense.

A field observation during trainings will force anyone to conclude that calisthenics aesthetics are at best during the display stage when factored in turbulent stress of enforcing organisation, discipline, precision and concentration among thousands of school children within the age range of 10-15 years with all manner of exuberance. Indeed, it is a tedious engagement that requires exceptional wisdom and understanding.

The success story is that Calisthenics has now become institutionalised schools sports in Osun, attracting aggressive competitions among Public and Private Schools in the state. During School Anniversaries, Inter House Sports, Government Official Visits   to Schools, it is now an easy exercise for school children to entertain their guests.

In major National and State Anniversaries, such as Independence, State Creation and Children’s Day,    Calisthenics display is the tall event that often attracts spectators to the State City Stadium.

It is among the leading ceremonies listed to usher in the Osun Governor Elect, Alhaji Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola, who will be officially inaugurated on November 27, 2018 as the Governor of the State.

Tracing the rejuvenation of the Calisthenics which was first invented by the Old Oyo State Governor, Chief Bola Ige in 1980/81,   Aregbesola, in 2011, engaged two Calisthenics experts from Cuba to train 40 Physical and Health Education Instructors and Games Masters in Osun.

The training experience culminated in a display of “Osun at 21” Anniversary Celebration,  on August 27, 2012, the first ever major Calisthenics Display in the State with only a Nigerian precedence in the one put up by the Late Bola Ige, at the Liberty Stadium in the Old Oyo State during the 2nd Republic.

In the last six years, however, five other major Calisthenics Displays during various Anniversaries, and some other indoors displays, have taken place without the Cubans, under the tutorship of those they trained, including the spectacular Oodua World Children’s Day Celebration in 2013 graced by the Late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade and the incumbent Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi along with Obas from Oduduwa lineage; and this year’s Children Day Celebration. Over 20,000 students from Middle and High Schools in more than 30 schools from Osogbo and Olorunda Local Government Areas have passed through the training exercises, which lasts up to 90 days in some instances.

In 2017, there was a new dimension with the introduction of the State-wide School Competition that allowed entry from all Public Schools in Osun. At this level, more than 40 schools across the State formed themselves into 9 teams, training for two school terms, with elimination displays and Senatorial Stage championship and Prizes. The Grand Finale took place in November 2017 between teams representing the 3 Senatorial Districts as a part of activities to celebrate 3rd Year Anniversary of the Second Tenure of Rauf Aregbesola Government: over 5,000 students were involved. Apart from the trophies, plaques and certificates of participation, N10.5 million money prize was awarded by the State Government for the sports facilities development of the participating schools.

Beyond the pomp and colours, one can begin to imagine what attitude and orientation these thousands of students, averagely aged 14 presently, will take into tertiary institutions and thenceforth into the professions and the society at large in a little more than a decade to come.

By the 2018 State-wide Competition, Governor Aregbesola had directed that Private Schools be allowed to participate. Out of 27 Schools that registered, Public and Private, only 14 could make it to the elimination stage. After the assessment of their display performances between Monday 22nd till 29th October, 2018, Glory Group of Schools,  Okuku, a Private School in Odo-Otin Local Government Area;  St. Raphael College, Ikire, also a Private School, and St. Micheal RCM, Ibokun, a Public School came  best three schools. They got N1 Million and a trophy each while the first runners up, L.A. Middle School, Ilesha, Nahada Group of Schools Inisa and Ife-Oluwa Middle School Osogbo got N750,000 each. The second runners up category, Osu Community Middle School, Osu, Olive Branches Schools, Osogbo and Anglican Central Government Middle School, Ile-Ife got N500,000 each.

Other five schools in the last category; Anglican Middle/High School Ife Odan; Oba Laoye and Ansaru-Islam Middle School, Ede; Oluorogbo Middle School, Ile-Ife; Shekinah Schools, Inisa and Osun North Anglican Diocesan Comprehensive High School, Agbeye got the consolation prizes of N200,000 each.

This 2018 Edition of the school competition will be concluded with the Grand Finale to be held on November 21, 2018 as part of the programmes of the inauguration of the Governor Elect, Alhaji Oyetola. The champion will go home with a giant trophy and N2 million, the runner up with N1m and the 3rd placed team will go away with N750,000.

The State Head of Service, Dr OyeboadeOlowogboyega and the Commissioner for Education, Mr Omotunde Kola Young presented the trophy and cash gift to the winners at the ceremony held in Osogbo on Tuesday 30th October, 2018.

Director, Department of Social, Grassroots Mobilisation and Guidance in the Office of the Governor, Comrade Bayo Ojo, at the brief ceremony said the prize rewards were among others to encourage more participation and assist the schools in improving their sporting facilities in the quest of the state government to institutionalise Calisthenics as part of the school curriculum, noting that playgrounds these days have become scarce resources in schools, especially private schools, which he described as a road block to the psychomotor domains objectives of education in Nigeria.

He said 27 schools indicated interest to participate in the competition but 14 eventually passed the preliminary training into the competition stage, leading to the emergence of the three finalists.

According to him, this year’s edition accommodated private schools to participate in the competitions, which has expanded the scope of the programme, as he solicited the support of the private sector to sustain the programme which he described as worthy in building a better future for Nigeria.

Commissioner for Education, Omotunde Young, commended Governor Aregbesola for the initiative, adding that it requires unusual understanding and strong leadership to sustain a programme like calisthenics considering its huge cost, just as he solicited private sector intervention, especially considering that Calisthenics is one of the best brand-able sports for children.

According to him, in 2017 alone, over 6,000 students were engaged and this has transformed their life through discipline, mental alertness, precision, team work among other Omoluabi virtues acquired through the calisthenics game.

He explained that whenever the government desires to stage calisthenics specifically for anniversaries, about 5,000 students are gathered as a “state team” from dozen contiguous schools in Osogbo and Olorunda Local Government Areas, with the government being responsible for their training, costume and welfare.

To take the burden of refreshment and transport to the training ground away from their parents, N300 daily is given to each participant for upwards of 90 training days.

Omotunde added that “the total monetary commitment, including the cost of costume for 5,000 persons, is huge, it is a direct investment into 5,000 families, apart from the beauty and benefits of Calisthenics. These are among several such social interventions and protection programmes  that have impacted on the State of Osun to bring down its crime and poverty levels to one of the very lowest in Nigeria.

“With the new template of State-wide school competition, the schools, parents and the Parents-Teachers Associations, are directly responsible, voluntarily, for the welfare and costumes of each of their teams. The State Training Crew trains the Physical Education Instructors and games masters of those schools.  This way, schools, private and public have taken ownership and control of the process with government continually guiding and supporting the process with training, competition staging and prizes, while expecting brand and private sector support in the nearest future.”

The state Head of Service, Olowogboyega said in the history of the state, no governor understands the philosophy of sound and qualitative education like Governor Rauf Aregbesola who has demonstrated unprecedented commitment to educational development.

He said physical education is the foundation of education and any society that lacks such is heading for doom, urging the teachers to sustain the institutionalisation of calisthenics in schools.

He emphasised that it is only Aregbesola that understands governance best among all the governors that have ruled the state and the school curriculum designed by the  administration are the best in the country.

Olowogboyega commended the teachers for the recent strides in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) with 70% credit level performance in English and Mathematics, saying, “Aregbesola has brought the riddles of impossibility through calisthenics and it is the teachers that will solve this problem, your commitment and determinations are important for the success of the programme”