SEDIBENG.-  The efforts to bring school sports seem to be mission impossible.

There is no progress regardless of efforts to bring back sports school on Wednesday, to say the least.  The truth is that there is no more interest from school principals and teachers to revive school sports. But having said this, I don’t blame the school principals and teachers but the system of our education.

For example, schools are now judged by their performance in the classroom and passing rate. There is no more fun at schools unless it is concerts or events to raise funds for the school. We all know that on Wednesday everything used to come to a standstill when schools were playing sports, especially soccer.

Those with long memories will attest that school sports at schools were popular until the Department of Education put principals and teachers under pressure to produce certain percentages in terms of passing. There is no way sports can go back to those days when the community used to pack the township’s dusty soccer grounds to capacity to watch schools playing.

It is important to note that, during those days PSL clubs’ scouts used to come to watch when schools were playing to scout players.  However, the same cannot be said now with school sports with these boys and girls spending most of their time in the classroom, including on weekends. The extra classes are the order of the day with young soccer players who can’t even attend training at their respective teams.

The sad reality is that not youngster is going to be a successful professional player. The same can be said about education as well, not everyone who is going to school is going to be successful in academics. There must be a balance, especially for those with less education capacity. Sports must accommodate those who are talented but less capacitated in terms of education.

This is something that needs to be debated around the table on how can we help those whose sports seem to be their career or excel in sports. The Wednesdays are no longer the same because school sports are no longer a priority to schools principals and teachers.

The reason why the current generation of students or learners say school is boring, is because of the lack of activities at school in terms of sports. MATTER OF FACT, the effort by the Minister of Sports to revive school sports seems to be mission impossible. The thing is, even those few teachers who are passionate about sports, there is nothing that they can do. They were told that teaching kids to pass with high marks or distinctions must be their top priority.

There are many former or ex-professional players who are teachers by profession but their schools are not even active when it comes to football. This tells you something about school vs education both at primary and secondary school.

The question is, what needs to be done to bring back school sports where there used to be?

Yours truly, Self-Appointed Minister of Football, was a good player himself, and I can attest to how it was exciting when it was Wednesday. Netball and football were the most popular sporting codes during those days, unlike today when rugby overshadows those codes.