Former national football coach, Hannibal Najjar believes that the next step for T&T football is the implementation of a long-term Wholistic Education and Development (WED) Programme. Najjar explained, What are we thinking? Are we to believe that we can just jump into any race, at any stage of it, with little preparation, and with the premonition that because we medalled before, we can medal again in the next, and the next! Utter nonsense! There is much merit in what some of the ex-national players and others have stated that went wrong with this concluding and failed attempt in our 2010 Fifa World Cup bid. However, there is only one answer and it lies in a long-term WED Programme, nothing else, nothing less!
WED is a philosophy based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to spiritual values such as compassion and peace. WED aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning, working, assessing, and living.
Why WED and not the Farm System
Since we in T&T have such a small population and as a consequence, a small pool of players to choose from, it is prudent to pursue a WED programme rather than just the farm system that larger countries employ. Brazil is the prime example in football, United States in Baseball, Basketball, and its Football, and Canada in Ice Hockey. The smaller the number of players, or metaphorically speaking, trees and plants, the more the attention is needed to nurture those trees and plants. In larger countries, there is much more such flora and if some die or fade away, the effect is not as disastrous.
The WED programme that I am recommending does not negate the employment of a farm-like system. It does however ensure that our trees and plants reach their maximum potential and life-span. In the WED programme, technocrats observe more attentively and intentionally while in the farm system, the strong will surface and survive. We have established that if teaching-learning is not framed in a WED programme, all efforts will come to naught. WED considers all staff, players, leagues, and school programmes, and seeks to control especially, malignant conflict.
It maintains an appreciation for the three critical teaching-learning domains, ie the cognitive, the affective, and the psychomotor, all measurable in each performing classification. And, with WED, focus is always on technical, tactical, functional teaching-learning strategies. Finally, persons that have experienced WED are capable of upholding the right attitude, are totally aware at all times, can apply decisions and skills as varying situations emerge, possess the required ability, and receive and render appreciation for displayed courage, effort, endurance and performance.