It's time to trans­form the "sweat " cul­ture sur­round­ing sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty to a struc­tured em­brace of phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy. The em­pha­sis on a "sweat" triv­i­alis­es sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty. The sweat cul­ture is detri­men­tal to the best in­ter­ests of sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

I was asked a ques­tion yes­ter­day morn­ing about a wish list for sports in the up­com­ing na­tion­al Bud­get, like­ly to be pre­sent­ed on Oc­to­ber 6. In an­swer­ing the ques­tion, I said the bud­get should make pro­vi­sions for em­ploy­ing qual­i­fied phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion teach­ers in every pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school with an em­pha­sis on phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy.

Just as nu­mer­a­cy and lit­er­a­cy are foun­da­tion­al to every sphere of life and liv­ing, they are al­so foun­da­tion­al to ed­u­ca­tion, busi­ness, med­i­cine, tech­nol­o­gy, and day-to-day liv­ing. Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is foun­da­tion­al to every as­pect of sport, but not on­ly in sport life.

Ac­cord­ing to the In­ter­na­tion­al Phys­i­cal Lit­er­a­cy As­so­ci­a­tion: "Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is the mo­ti­va­tion, con­fi­dence, phys­i­cal com­pe­tence, knowl­edge, and un­der­stand­ing to val­ue and take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for en­gage­ment in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties for life."

In a pub­lished ar­ti­cle, Josephine Camp­bell wrote: Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is a vi­tal con­cept that en­com­pass­es the fun­da­men­tal move­ment skills nec­es­sary for chil­dren, such as catch­ing, jump­ing, run­ning, and throw­ing. Mas­tery of these skills fos­ters con­fi­dence and com­pe­tence in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties, en­abling chil­dren to en­gage in sports and var­ied phys­i­cal pur­suits through­out their lives. High­light­ing the in­ter­con­nect­ed­ness of phys­i­cal and in­tel­lec­tu­al de­vel­op­ment in chil­dren.

There has been grow­ing con­cern about de­creas­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, in par­tic­u­lar, among chil­dren, lead­ing to is­sues like child­hood obe­si­ty and re­lat­ed health prob­lems. This has sparked re­newed in­ter­est in phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy as a means to en­cour­age ac­tive lifestyles from an ear­ly age. Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is not just about learn­ing sports but de­vel­op­ing a broad range of skills that en­hance self-es­teem and pro­mote life­long fit­ness.

Ef­forts to pro­mote phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy have gained sup­port from var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions and the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC), sup­port­ing its im­por­tance.

Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy in­volves holis­tic life­long learn­ing through move­ment and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty. It de­liv­ers phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, so­cial and cog­ni­tive health and well-be­ing ben­e­fits.

Every­one has the po­ten­tial to val­ue, de­vel­op and main­tain pos­i­tive phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty be­hav­iours for life.

But some­one has to take the lead to iden­ti­fy the phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, so­cial and cog­ni­tive skills peo­ple can work on to de­vel­op their phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy. Who in T&T and I dare say the Caribbean, can or should that be? Should it be the na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions (NSO) aligned to the IOC, or is it to be an ac­tive part­ner­ship be­tween the NSOs/NG­Bs (na­tion­al gov­ern­ing bod­ies), the Min­istry of Sport and the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion?

Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is as im­por­tant as nu­mer­a­cy and lit­er­a­cy. And that's why the wish list sug­ges­tion is that the up­com­ing bud­get should pro­vide for em­ploy­ing qual­i­fied phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion teach­ers in every pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school through­out T&T, with a fo­cus on phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy.

Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy goes be­yond phys­i­cal de­vel­op­ment and com­pe­tence. It con­tributes to so­cial, emo­tion­al and cog­ni­tive de­vel­op­ment, im­proved aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, cog­ni­tive skills, men­tal well­ness, so­cial skills and healthy lifestyle habits.

The ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy are need­ed in T&T, giv­en the eco­nom­ic and so­cial chal­lenges. Sport mat­ters, phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy mat­ters. It's not a ques­tion of if we can af­ford the fi­nan­cial in­vest­ment but can we af­ford not to in­vest?

The na­tion­al Bud­get for fis­cal 2025/2026 should re­flect a new way of think­ing about sport, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and in­clu­sive phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy.