(Archive photo: Maroela Media)
Reports about millions of rands being increasingly spent on first-team rugby at schools have opened up a conversation that has been needed for a long time, says the Solidarity Schools Support Center (SOS).
For many parents, teachers and former students, school rugby is much more than just a game on a Saturday afternoon: It is intertwined with community life, identity, tradition and pride.
The SOS says that when spending begins to look like that of a professional market, the question must be asked whether sport still serves the child and the school community, and whether the school community begins to serve the sport?
Rapport reported earlier, among other things, that some top schools spend an average of R6 million just on their first teams. The money is used, among other things, for the payment of coaches and tours, while some schools, according to Rapport, have a budget of up to R10 million which is spent annually on scholarships to attract top players.
The SOS says it believes that sport is an indispensable part of school education. Especially in African school communities, rugby, netball, hockey, athletics and other sports play an important role in character formation, discipline, teamwork and community building.
Sports also bring people together.
“It teaches young people to participate, take their side, lose, get back up, take responsibility, work together in teams and respect others. School sports are precious and must be protected,” says dr. Leandie Bräsler, school network officer at the SOS.
Precisely because of this, the SOS warns against a culture where performance, status and financial competition begin to displace the educational purpose of sport.
“School sport is at its best a formative event, not a showcase,” says Hugo Vermeulen, head of training at the SOS. “When a child’s value, a teacher’s well-being or a school’s culture begins to suffer under the pressure to just keep winning, we have lost the balance.”
It is not wrong for schools to take sport seriously or to invest in good coaching, facilities and opportunities, says the SOS. Parents want their children to get the best possible exposure and development.
The problem arises when the race for the best players, the biggest budgets and the strongest first team becomes so dominant that the rest of school life begins to bend under it.
“Not every child will one day follow a professional sports career,” says Bräsler. “But everyone will one day have to work, build relationships and bear responsibility as adults. That’s why academia, character building and sport must never be played against each other.”
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The SOS’s sports manifesto, which has been endorsed by member schools since 2019, emphasizes that the child’s physical and emotional well-being comes first. The organization says it is just as relevant today. Healthy participation must always be above mere performance, merit must remain valid and sport must be part of a holistic education. Winning is not the measure of a child’s or school’s worth.
“Our schools are fantastic,” says Vermeulen. “Many of our Afrikaans schools excel in the academic, cultural and sporting fields. That is precisely why we must be careful not to absolutize success in one area in such a way that it undermines the whole. A healthy balance is essential.”
According to Bräsler, this balance applies not only to learners, but also to teachers and coaches.
“We cannot expect teachers to constantly do more, perform more and bear more without ultimately paying the price for it. If we do not guard against burnout, we lose exactly those people who make the biggest difference in children’s lives.”
(Photo: Maroela Media)
The SOS says the answer is therefore not to scale back sport, but to manage it more healthily.
Schools must have the courage to ask honest questions: Are we shaping children, or are we using them? Are we building community, or are we building brands? Are we chasing exposure, or are we building people?
“When sport is approached correctly, it offers learners a unique opportunity to not only become physically stronger, but also to develop emotionally and socially,” says Vermeulen. “This does not mean that standards should be lowered or that competition should disappear. It does call for a healthy balance: competition that stimulates growth, coaching that focuses on development and an environment where every child gets the opportunity to belong and improve, regardless of their skill level.”
The SOS says sport is a powerful asset for schools and communities, but it is only an asset as long as the child, education and human dignity come first.