Fast feet mustn't push out quick thinkers

Lascelve Graham,  Guest Columnist

Although Keith Noel, former St Jago High principal, concluded differently in his recent article (16/3/14), it is because I read The Gleaner that I was made aware of the "10-13" sports transferees who were not allowed to participate for St Jago at Champs 2012. Focusing on whether it was 11 or 13 athletes involved is majoring in the minor. The point that this and a number of other incidents confirm is that transfers for sports purposes by our high schools continue unabated. The ISSA rules have proven ineffective and a dismal failure. The St Jago sports transferees were unable to compete simply because of the gross incompetence and negligence of the St Jago authorities.

According to Mr Noel, "In some (long) years past, it was discovered that an ugly practice had developed in a few high schools where youngsters who were not qualified for ... high school were 'recruited' into those schools primarily to represent them at football (and to a much lesser extent, track and field). The many rules have brought an end to this practice.

"Rules ... were put in place to prevent the 'pirating' of students with sports talent by schools with ambitions to win at football, cricket or track and field that would lure these students from institutions with fledgling programmes."

educators won't face facts

For Mr Noel to write the above and assert that ISSA's approach is effective suggests strongly why education is moving forward at such a snail's pace. Too many of our renowned educators have their heads in the clouds. They just refuse to face the facts!

The practice is very much alive and well! Friends of mine who are in the business of teaching literacy tell of a number of instances where they have been asked by prestigious high schools to teach semi-literate youngsters brought into the school because of their sports ability. Teachers and a number of principals complain regularly, though quietly and in private, about the practice.

In one Gleaner article, a coach lamented that the playing field was not level, and for coaches like himself, "it's an endless struggle to keep his programme afloat, as he staves off rabid recruiters".

We need to be fair and consistent, especially in our situation where there is a paucity of quality education. We cannot be keeping out some children from high school based on academic requirements but letting in others whose academic performance may be worse than those we are keeping out.

What Mr Noel is proposing is that if a child is academically deficient, he/she should be allowed into a school of very high academic grades because that student is good at sports. Is this fair to the many students who have been kept out through GSAT because their grades were not competitive? Isn't this a double standard?

hard-working inner-city students

What about the poor, struggling, voiceless student from the inner city who has worked hard, as we tell them to do, to get the grades that would earn a coveted place at school but is kept out by somebody brought in because of sports ability, although not having the academic grades to merit placement? Does that parent have any rights?

What about the very competent coaches, trained by G.C. Foster College and scattered in almost every nook and cranny of Jamaica, who discover and nurture these outstanding athletes hoping for some deserved glory and recognition for themselves and their schools, only to have their charges snatched from them and claimed by others as soon as they come to prominence?

Brilliant man of the arts that he is, Mr Noel conjures up a scenario in which parents are the all powerful, domineering, driving force, activists in education, and the poor, passive, reactive principals are hapless, helpless victims. Of course, this is a farce fashioned by the very creative and imaginative mind of Mr Noel. Oftentimes it is the principals, the coaches, alumni and their acolytes who provide the impetus, the energy for sports recruiting by high schools.

Mr Noel obviously prefers to discriminate against and penalise those students who do not have a sports skill as he uses criteria usually reserved for sports academies and clubs to determine entry to high schools with their limited spaces.

Dr Lascelve 'Muggy' Graham is a chemist and former Jamaica football captain. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and long.78@hotmail.com.