Harold KT Tjahikika

The official 15th school day statistics of 2023 recorded 864 707 learners in total, with the number of schools standing at 2 002. Private schools made out 13.9% of the total number of schools. Schools are institutions which enable learners to receive education. Knowledge, skills, attitude and aptitude are transferred to learners by those professionally trained and employed to do so. Equally, based on the natural demand for holistic development of children, society and government expect that schools engage children in different sports activities. Historically, sports codes adopted by schools were generally informed by their traditional settings. Traditional settings of schools have evolved and changed. Schools’ extra-curricular programmes have become inclusive, and their activities are blended and enriched with new sports codes. It goes without saying that there is no specific sport code which is reserved for a specific gender or group of learners. All children can and may participate in whatever sport code of their choice.

Cultivation 

Schools continue to introduce learners to mental and physical activities, which further develop their academic prowess on the one hand, while simultaneously cultivating and nurturing sporting potentials in them. They help identify learners’ inclinations and strengths in different sports codes to strengthen them at a very early stage. The adage “a healthy body carries a healthy mind” is very much alive in schools, more so in this era where children’s minds and bodies are put under tremendous pressure by schools, families, peers and communities. Schools, by virtue of their raison d’etre, do not just teach and graduate learners with academic knowledge and skills only. They equally serve to mitigate the social demands and negative influences exerted on learners through sport. They nurture learners’ sporting skills and elevate them to national and international prominence. Many athletes and players we had in the past, and those doing us proud today, were and have been scouted by clubs during school competitions. Their remarkable national and international performances imprint on them, though not visible, the names of their alma mater.

Attention 

It is imperative that school sports receive great attention as much as it is given to national sports, more specifically regarding sports facilities’ provision and upgrading. Some schools need proper sports grounds and some types of indoor sports facilities, all of which can be used for various sports codes. The status quo of some schools having them in abundance than others must not only be addressed and redressed through sectoral budgets. There are many business entities which are involved in and contribute towards school sports in various ways, based on their defined social responsibility areas of interest. As much as their support is highly valued and deserves praise, school sports facilities equally need their interventions and funds’ injection. They are called upon to reassess and realign their social responsibility mandates to include the provision and upgrading of sports facilities at needy schools. Banking institutions, insurance companies, construction and mining entities, government parastatals, national and international firms winning public bids, national professional bodies representing various professions, etc, are reminded of the fact that their owners, chief executives, directors, employees and members attended and graduated from primary and secondary schools which now need them. They are therefore called upon to look back over their shoulders, as individuals and as a collective, and prioritise needy schools on their annual social responsibilities’ agendas.  

Way forward

Scanning through the 2022 Education Management Information System (EMIS) booklet, no data or information could be found relating to the number of schools with or without different types of indoor or outdoor sports facilities. This makes it difficult for one to gauge the extent of needs and disparities that may exist between schools and regions in terms of school sports facilities. Therefore, EMIS is, in hindsight, advised to consider collecting and capturing data on sports facilities, indoor and outdoor, in future editions of EMIS booklets. 

The Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service (MSYNS) is involved in school sport through the Namibia Schools Sport Union (NSSU). The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) is responsible for the provision and upgrading of physical facilities at schools. I wish to think aloud that NSSU’s role would go beyond its traditional mandate of administering, promoting and encouraging sport in schools. The capable new management of NSSU should, from the onset, seek an audience with, and engage the MoEAC to compare notes and establish collaboration modalities with regard to improving sports facilities at schools. Furthermore, NSSU is well-placed to initiate and facilitate, in collaboration with the MoEAC, an objective ‘School Sports Facilities Status Assessment’ exercise. NSSU could play an instrumental role in initiating and steering this process forward with the objective of generating a mapped-out long-term school sports facilities development plan.  The assessment could include stakeholders such as MSYNS, the National Sports Council (NSC) and various sports federations.

It will be to the advantage of school sports to involve existing sports federations in this endeavour because schools identify and nurture the potential and skills in learners, which enrich sports federations through their affiliated teams. Through this exercise, sports federations become aware of the real conditions under which their current and future athletes and players are being prepared. Eventually, empathy and sympathy with the conditions of the facilities would naturally be invoked in them, and based on their experience, federations could be propelled to initiate their own programmes aimed at establishing and upgrading sports facilities at needy schools. 

Synergies 

Furthermore, sports federations would add concrete value to this exercise as they would use their expertise and experience to advise and tap on their business connections to mobilise funds and resources for sports facilities at schools. There is surely a consequential link between the level of school sports performance and national sports performance. Therefore, the provision and upgrading of school sports facilities cannot be underrated, or left to a single stakeholder only.  

The assessment exercise proposed above would inform stakeholders of the extent of school sports facilities’ needs, and the subsequent interventions needed. The results thereof could be used to constructively influence budget deliberations of various government sector ministries, including private institutions’ budget programs. It could also influence the content of the National Development Plan (NDP6) to accommodate the identified
needs.