An athlete races towards the finishing line in last year’s competitions (Archive)
 
By Godwin Abedican
 
Arua
 
The organizers of the inter primary schools zonal athletics championship for Pajulu zone in Ayivu west division have set the dates of Thursday 11^th and Friday 12^th April as the days for the two days event.
 
The competitions that will take place at Sts. Peter and Paul Pokea minor Seminary play grounds, brings together all the government and non-government aided schools in the zone.
 
The conditions for schools to participate in the competitions include, registration of the participants under Uganda Sports Association using the Lerner’s Identification Number (LIN) from which a list of participants is generated and an album developed for the participants.
 
This online registration therefore phases out the manual screening of the athletes, because the machine automatically rejects those above 14 years and those below 9 years, as opposed to the previous ways of screening.
 
An athlete takes the long jump during last year’s competitions
(Archive)
 
However the main challenge of the online registration cited has been the lack of ICT knowledge and technicality.
 
Speaking to Radio Pacis in telephone interview, Victor Alioni, the chairperson of the organizing committee for the competitions in Pajulu zone notes that, lack of ICT knowledge has affected the registration processes in many schools.
 
“Many people have been ringing me about this challenge. Most of us are not knowledgeable on ICT and my advice to the head taches on this has been that, they should go to someone who has the knowledge and technical enough to do the work for them effectively. If we are to set up a camp to do the registrations, still we shall have logistical challenges,” Alioni explained.
According to him, the schools pay 1500 per child which money is submitted to the Ministry of Education and Sports, under this arrangement. Alioni says that, schools that do not meet the obligations will not be allowed to participate in the competitions.
 
This year all the head teachers and games teachers will meet to ensure they have control of learners and their security.
 
A total of 9 government and over 20 private schools are expected to take part in these competitions which also includes field and track events, with the final number of participants to be determined latest by 10^th of April 2024.