School Games Purveyor of Talents

The games were created not only for recreation but also to serve as a nursery for the grooming of sports talents. With the increasing need to assure a constant flow of sports talents, more attention is being paid to school games as a perfect nursery for the detection and grooming of talents. As such the primary, secondary and University Games were erected to special leagues and officials of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education deeply involved in the technical organisation of these games. What used to be referred as OSSUC games was dissolved and on the ashes of this organisation, two new leagues emerged namely; FENASSCO 'B' for the primary school games and FENASSCO 'A' for the secondary school games. To fill the vacuum at the level of higher education, FENASU league was created to take charge of the university games.

Though the various school games were created to offer and opportunity for recreation and meeting of cultures, the performance motive has come to override that of recreation. As such the games have become the fishing pond of sports federations and clubs. The games are usually monitored by trainers in various sports discipline in quest of fresh blood. However, sports authorities in the country have been criticised for not assuring the follow-up of the athletes after the games. To make up for this lacuna, most university institutions and some secondary schools have started creating clubs that are affiliated to the civilian championships to enable their athletes to continue training and competing after the games though their main aim is to increase their medals booty at the next edition of the games and boost the popularity of the institution. Talents have emerged from the school games that have brought glory to certain sports federations like Sergine Kouanga and Apes Ekanga in athletics, Ngwe Emmanuel in table tennis and Ngondobouk in feminine football, Tataw Stephen who later on became captain of the Indomitable Lions.

With the potential demonstrated by the school games, sports federations are orientating the development policy towards schools as the choicest place for the detection and nurturing of sports talents. Outside the traditional sports disciplines like football, handball and athletics which used to be practised in schools in Cameroon, more sports disciplines are increasingly introduced in schools across the nation such as cricket, table tennis and badminton just to name a few. However there are little or no incentive young sports talents. The cash prizes are usually negligible during the games and no special scholarships for talented students such as in the United States where some students finance their education from sports.