By Pearson Mbendera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South)- The minister of education honorable Dokora has embarked on a number of reforms to revitalise the educational sector, but those reforms shouldn’t merely be limited to academics, but should also extend to sporting activities.
While there has been a lot of opposition to the reforms that Dokora has introduced, some of them are needed, and there are some yet to be introduced, like reforming the sporting culture in schools.
There is a lot that schools can offer, but for some reason, they have been limited to just a few. And sometimes, it seems as if people have to choose what they should get when they are supposed to get the whole package.
The sporting culture in this country needs a lot of work. From the participation figures to its importance in student development, there are a lot that we have overlooked in as much as sports are concerned.
There are a lot of talented students in sporting and academic disciplines here in Zimbabwe, but for the most part, not so many are interested in pursuing sports as a career because of the limited opportunities that sports offer and the high risk it offers should things go wrong.
But its not the opportunities in sports that produce a problem in this country, its the fact that, for the most part, students feel that they have to make a choice between sports and academics and it is hard to pursue both.
There aren’t many competitive and suitable sporting activities in colleges to satiate the needs of a student who would like to explore both the academics and sports, thus eliminating sports as a possible career choice.
Schools aren’t doing enough to develop the sporting talents at their disposal, with many resorting to age cheating and various other ways of cheating to win competitions as the pursuit of winning in sports. But the message these schools send that winning competitions is more important than developing student talent ia just wrong, aa they avail sporting opportunities to only a few people, and sometimes, these aren’t even students.
But sporting activities shouldn’t be of the privileged few but open to everyone as they can improve the academic and professional standings of most people and mold them better.
So people get lost from the beginning when opportunities are denied of them at a school level before they may even have dreams of having a professional career.
In developed countries, sports pay a lot of money. Athletes make more money than company executives and world leaders, but here in Zimbabwe, its the opposite. And for that reason, it is hard for many to pursue a career in sports because of its many disadvantages, and the fact that it has an early retirement age doesn’t help out.
But the fact that sports has been made into an either or activity, it has had some uneducated people who have fallen prey to greedy managers and promoters who too advantage of them. I remember watching the interview of former boxer Alfonso Zvenyika and hear him narrate how his manager made a lot of money while he was the one in the boxing ring, giving and receiving punches. This is another problem we can help eliminate, ensuring that the right people are the ones getting paid and getting the glory for their work.
A struggling nation like ours should take advantage of all the opportunities available ino sports as there create a lot of opportunities for a lot of people. In developed countries, sporting clubs a billion dollar entities and we need to turn ours around.
It’s not really the job of one man but maybe Dokora can help kick start this, it doesn’t have to start at the professional level, it has to be nurtured from the very beginning, from the kids learning their ABCs while learning to kick a ball, grab hold of a tennis racquet or cricket bat whatever their sporting discipline of choice is.
We cannot start demanding better until we start proving that we can offer better. lets start with putting in the work, and talk about the benefits later, because, if well executed, there are too many benefits to be reaped out of this.
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