Lascelve Graham | Why shouldn’t our high schools recruit based on sports talent?

Just as diarrhoea or constipation are symptoms, signs, signals of more serious problems in the alimentary canal, the gastrointestinal tract, the digestive system, so is the recruiting of athletes for sports purposes by our specialised educational institutions symptomatic of more serious problems in the education system.

Diarrhoea or constipation, of themselves, can have serious consequences, repercussions, and so one must seek to deal with them while remedying the underlying cause(s). It is the same with our specialised educational institutions with respect to them bringing in students for sports purposes.

There are many negative consequences associated with recruiting for sports purposes by our schools up to the high-school level. These include:

Maintaining/exacerbating the inequity in the education system.

Referred to as ‘apartheid’ by many, it creates a divide by plundering one of the few assets that the newer, poorer, weaker secondary schools may have.

Having been already denied academically sound children by way of GSAT or PEP, their sporting talent is now raided, stolen by these marauding gangs of more powerful schools, some of which have been around for over 100 years. Consequently, those schools are robbed of students who could help to associate their names with excellence, help to eventually put them on the map, making them more attractive for future generations of teachers and students alike because of their sporting achievements.

Bear in mind that if Jamaica is serious about the delivery of quality education to all our children, we must work fervently towards strengthening, not debilitating, our newer, poorer, weaker schools. Snatching, stealing their sporting talent is not a step in the right direction.

It makes the playing field that more uneven and places the less prestigious, poorer schools (and coaches) at a distinct disadvantage. They get no fame, recognition or acclaim for having discovered, nurtured and developed talent. The practice handicaps, unfairly, schools which don’t import e.g., Campion College and Immaculate Conception High. It makes Jamaica’s drive to educate all her children more difficult.

Inequity, unfairness, injustice

Some children have to pass difficult academic exams for entry, while others don’t. Academically poor-performing athletes take the spaces of poor, more academically deserving citizens. Given that we officially declare an academic philosophical underpinning to space allocation in our high schools, this represents a double standard, with students brought in based on sports standard.

Imports also take (away) spaces on the team from potential student athletes who qualified for school in the normal way.

The import denies the opportunity for the non-import to develop his/her sporting potential (loss of sports scholarship, etc.). All students who qualify for a given high school in the declared way - whether stars or not - need, and should have, the opportunity to benefit from representing their school in sports.

It increases the trust deficit of our leaders, who are perceived to say one thing (academic performance and preference determine entry to school, i.e., academic standard) and do another (bring students in based on sports standard). The public, sports commentators, sports journalists, the fans, the past students, the teachers, the current students know that a school recruits, brings in students based on sports talent, yet the officials barefacedly lie about it, maintaining, “We don’t recruit”.

What messages are we sending to our children?

What values are we inculcating? And then, later we throw our hands in the air and cry out for divine intervention, and complain about criminality and other atrocious, antisocial behaviour.

It sends warped messages of tribalism, win at all cost, the end justifying the means, confidence, self-reliance, might is right, bullying, money is all that matters, beating the system, deceit, etc., to our youngsters. The impact of sports on young players and spectators is strong.

They know what is happening in the schools. Many think it is unfair, but feel powerless to do anything about it. They see it as institutionalised injustice. ‘Buying’ of sports talent by our educational institutions is now considered par for the course, as is scamming…’a nuh nuttn’.

Aberrant behaviour has become the norm! Sports in our schools is raw competition, so intense that it has become counterproductive. It works to shift the focus in our schools and students from education to sports. If even our under-resourced, specialised educational institutions are so heavily focused on winning at sports that they corrupt the system to facilitate sports, it elevates the standing of sports in the society and diminishes that of education.

OUT OF CONTROL

It is like a fire, which can be very useful if used carefully, but is devastating if out of control. Sports in our schools is out of control.

The emphasis on school sports is no longer as a teaching tool, used to help produce rounded citizens. It has become a means of making money, while using poor black people’s children for the entertainment of adults, then subsequently discarding them. Shades of slavery? It is really child abuse.

High schools import to win. Full stop. It is win at all costs. It is of little or no relevance whether the youngsters are rich or poor, literate, semi-literate or illiterate; whether they come from institutions with good, poor or no facilities; once they show good talent, they will be imported. This has led to the logical consequence of recruits being sourced outside of Jamaica, by public schools, so that taxpayers’ money and the sparsely-resourced, inefficient, struggling to failing education system is now being used to provide benefits for outsiders, foreigners, while poor Jamaicans cry out for the opportunity. Absurd! Ridiculous!

“O Judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts and men (women?) have lost their reason!” a quote from Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar, a play by William Shakespeare. The above quote is so apt when we consider the state of education in Jamaica today, and why it is there. The above are just a few of the reasons the Ministry of Education and ISSA should ban recruiting for sports purposes by our educational institutions, and school boards should stop the practice. It is symptomatic of the fact that education is not paramount, is not priority number one in Jamaica. That is the root cause of this sports talent recruiting disease which currently ails our education system.

If our traditional high schools, especially our boys’ schools, should cease and desist from this dastardly, iniquitous practice, it would go a far way towards bringing some balance, equity, fair play to our education system and justice for our poorer, weaker schools. Let’s see our schools following the current examples of Campion College and Immaculate Conception High School, among others, with respect to how they treat with sports. They refuse to be part of this race to the bottom. As with St George’s College of old, where we gave our all for football, they are very clear as to the major reasons for being in school.

Importing/recruiting is totally unnecessary for the discovery, maintenance or development of our stars in sports.

From 1948, when we burst on the world scene by winning at the Olympics, until the present, most of our stars did not attend traditional schools. Many in former times could not even compete at Champs, e.g., George Rhoden -Kingston Technical, Les Laing - Dinthill, George Kerr - Knockalva, Keith Gardner - Black River, Mel and Mal Spence -Kingston Technical, etc. In more recent times, Jamaica has held all the 100-metre titles for males in all age categories, at all levels at the same time. Four of these six world titles were held by athletes who did not attend high-profile schools: Odail Todd - Green Island High, Dexter Lee -Herbert Morrison High, Lerone Clarke -William Knibb High and Usain Bolt -William Knibb High.

MYTH

It’s a myth, a lie perpetuated by greedy, selfish, powerful old boys from traditional high schools, who believe that might is right and they must have all the good things for themselves, no matter the consequences to others. People are also being fooled into believing that recruiting for sports purposes by our educational institutions is in the best interest of poor children, poor people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Education is in the best interest of poor people.

We need to remember also that until a child is given the right, the authority to come through that school gate as a student of a given school, no recruiting has taken place. With all that old boys, past students, etc, are doing behind the scenes, only school authorities have the power to give embodiment to, to make sports recruiting by our educational institutions a reality, a fact.

Jamaica needs to get its act together in education. Develop those who have legitimately qualified to come to your school. Let us ban recruiting for sports purposes by our schools now.

Dr Lascelve ‘Muggy’ Graham is a former captain of the Jamaica senior football team. Please send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.