The crowning glory of every student athletes as well as their teacher coaches is to be in the Palarong Pambansa. What about the teacher officiating officials? Do they need it too? Of course they also wanted to officiate in this annual multi-sports event involving participants from different regions of the Philippines.
Being a part of the national technical official in the Palarong Pambansa, a lot of teachers in the Department of Education asked me on how they can be able to officiate in the Palarong Pambansa because not all were given a chance to officiate in this prestigious national sports event even though you become one of the officiating officials in the lower meets. The answer is very simple and clear. It is just that you take the national accreditation course but taking that course is not as simple as what we perceive.
There are pre-requisites and requirements in taking the national accreditation course given by the Task force on School Sports. Pre-requisites is that you served as officiating official at least three years in the regional meet in the sports event you prepares. Requirements are travel order, medical certificate, and most important registration fee. In this five-day seminar includes the lecture about the duties and responsibilities for officials, code for officials and the rules of your chosen event from eight in the morning until eight in the evening, a physical fitness test like running around the oval five times, a practicum test and lastly a nose bleeding and mind boggling almost four-hour written test.
Once you passed those test with an “A” rank the task force will include you to be in the National Technical Official list.
By: Jose C. Guanzon
