Parkmore’s Montrose Primary School has leapt towards changing the face of non-physical sporting codes by launching an e-sports arena.
The Montrose Primary e-sports arena was launched by the school through a miniature gaming festival on April 13. Learners, their parents, and the school’s partners played console and PC games and explored virtual reality simulations, and photo-editing artificial intelligence.
E-sports are spectator-driven, multiplayer video game competitions wherein players vie for the glory of emerging as better gamers than their competitors for their fans.
At the school, e-sports emerged as an inevitable step towards progress between educator Ronel Sauer, and principal Sonnette Van Loggerenberg – who innovated the idea of building an arena at the school.
“Mrs Van Loggerenberg had this idea because she’s seen the success of e-sports in this school,” Sauer explained. “We felt that all the other sports have a space in the school to practise, and we saw a need for the e-sports learners to also have a space that is theirs.”
Van Loggerenberg said she didn’t hesitate to jump on board when Sauer initially proposed piloting e-sports at the school, specifying the school’s goal since 2012 is to emerge as a leader in IT application.
“I immediately said yes because I believe gaming will give children a lot of useful skills in the future,” Van Loggerenberg said. “We are proud to give the two-thirds of children who don’t have other sporting or cultural skills that others have the opportunity to also be part of a team, and understand how to work in a team.
“Teamwork is life: we have to learn it by the time we enter careers, and so on. This gives those learners the opportunity to be acknowledged,” Van Loggerenberg continued. “E-sports is a full-on, acknowledged, activity at this school, with leagues that we participate in this. We are the only school that I know of, which has colours for e-sports learners to wear on their blazers if they meet the various set criteria.”
It took a village to realise Van Loggerenberg’s commitment to creating an e-sports arena at the school. Among the many hands it took were those of ScadCo CEO, Mitchell Struwig, who recalled when computers were introduced to schools – marvelling at the advancements achieved in pairing learners with technology.
“20 years ago, we started technology in schools – technology in education – and that has evolved into giving us this opportunity to introduce e-sports into schools,” Struwig reflected. “Pioneering this over that time has been quite an interesting journey – every level had to be unlocked to get to this point. It’s been a journey, imagining e-sports in education.”
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