By Tiadi Blair

Moen Gafoor of the Guyana Scrabble Players Association (GSPA) has indicated that the first steps to introducing scrabble to secondary school pupils will be made by a series of workshops to be held over the course of the school holidays.

Gafoor and David Krakowsky are the main men spearheading this project

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony

Several weeks ago the Association approached the government  with the idea of introducing scrabble into schools seeing it as a way of developing the mental capacity of students.

A proposal was written up and reviewed by the ministry which they agreed to support by purchasing the equipment for students within various schools. It has not yet been confirmed whether it will be a nationwide venture because of the possibility of not being able to reach schools in other regions.

This may be conflicting with what the ministry wants in terms of outreach because the scrabble association may not be able to take the programme out of Georgetown which the Ministry hopes to do.

Krakowsky mentioned to Stabroek Sport that his organisation wishes to recruit new, younger members which should add some variety to the competitions hosted regularly. Krakowsky also stressed the importance scrabble can play in the educational system.

Some members of the Guyana Scrabble Players Association in action.

Krakowsky added that scrabble can viewed as a mathematical problem with aspects of probability in each game. “I would say that we need a large membership from the secondary schools, I also feel that scrabble is a good tool to teach children how to spell, increase their vocabulary and improve logic,” he said.

A series of workshops open to interested secondary school pupils will be held as a precursor to starting scrabble clubs and the turnout will determine the interest level. This will take place every Saturday in   July and August with players of the Association conducting lessons on the basics of scrabble.