Sean O’Connor finds that sport is virtually dead in many schools yet it teaches vital skills
Ganief Millward is a primary school teacher in Manenberg, Cape Town. He recites a familiar list of his community’s problems with heartfelt sadness in his eyes. Then the sadness disappears and a smile almost happens. There is a simple explanation.
“Since the Sport Stepping Stones scheme arrived here last year,” he says, “there has been a vibrancy in our school, you can feel it. The children really look forward to their sports lessons. Because they have something to build their confidence, it motivates them, so their all-round learning improves. Everyone benefits.”
Sport was once taken for granted in schools. But since the Department of Education’s rationalisation programme non-academic activities, such as sport and art, have virtually disappeared in many schools. The department candidly admits that sport cannot be one of its priorities — it is too busy grappling with fundamentals, such as books, desks and the curriculum. Class sport, where co-ordination, teambuilding, sporting behaviour and other skills are learnt, now falls under life skills, taught by the class teacher. However, many of today’s often overburdened teachers do not have the energy or the will to teach sport during life skills, even if they were trained to do so.
The Sport Stepping Stones scheme aims to restore primary school sport to what it once was — a pillar of early education — in 15 Manenberg schools. Since June 2000, the Department of Sport and Recreation has funded the training of 25 sports assistants that take the place of the old physical education teachers at each school. MTN are co-sponsors. Each assistant must have prior experience with coaching children and must live in the local community. They work long hours and are paid a volunteer’s stipend of R850 per month. When with the children, they are always accompanied by a staff member.
The programme has made a definite impact in these schools. Parents are encouraging their children to stay in school because of the opportunities offered by the project — such as the Learn to Swim Programme. Abubaker Cassiem of Manenberg High school says that the children’s attitude to school has also changed. “There are now more pupils inside the school than we had outside. Children want to be involved in sport. There is interschool action now. Community members attend sports events and get involved in the school. My school is starting to plan future sport now. Even the teachers are more involved.”
Conceived by Sports Development Advisors Craig Strudwick and Kim Halbert-Pere and Australian volunteers on assignment from the Australian Sports Commission to the Directorate of Sport and Recreation, the scheme will soon be transferred to another area of the province. There are no shortage of schools desperate for sport to provide some kind of alternative or enrichment for their learners. As always, the problem is funding and sustainability. In June, the money dries up. Ennerdale Primary, where Ganief Millward teaches, probably won’t afford the full salaries of the sports assistants. Many parents don’t have the R30 needed for annual school fees. If the scheme does end, trust breaks down, making it more difficult for any subsequent programmes to fill the void.
Sponsorship seems the only solution. Perhaps each provincial Department of Education could appoint a person to source sponsorship by selling school sport to companies. While there seems to be plenty of sponsorship money available at the elite end of the sporting world, there is nothing in disadvantaged areas where sport should play a major role. School sport sponsorship ought to be a marketer’s dream: instant popularity, and the branding of your product for life. It seems strange that there are no takers. Quite simply, there won’t be an elite of local sport if the culture of sport in schools is not re-established with some urgency.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, March 2001.