DEDICATION
6.4 The White school magnets and migration
The school as an educational institution plays an important role in the learners’ dynamic process of developmental changes, and Bronfenbrenner (1979) refers to the relation or connection between the learner and their context as the mesosystem. Although much has changed in schools in South Africa since 1994, change is relative when taking into consideration the enormous diversity and heterogeneity of schools (Hofmeyr, 2000).
The dynamics that play out in the promotion of sport at school are diverse and complicated. When discussing the role of the school as viewed by the participants in the study, the data show that its contribution towards the learners’ sporting feats can best be described as ‘the white school magnets and migration’, the third notion, distilled from theme three (schooling and the curriculum).
Learners started playing sport at an early age and some knew before they started school which code of sport they were going to excel in. The data in this study suggest that the school as an institution provided the opportunity for the learners to play the sport that they excelled in, either during their senior primary (Grade 4 to 6) or junior secondary (Grade 7 to 9) phase of schooling. The schools therefore provided the learners not only with the opportunity to engage in the sport but also to further the development of it.
This drew the learners like a magnet towards the former white schools. The learners selected the code of sport they excelled in: when I was in Grade 3 I played cricket for the B team and for me cricket used to be just another sport. Then my parents forced me to go to the holiday camps and at this camp I was selected to play for the A team. Ever since then cricket has been my passion (Ja2); when I was eight years old at Chesterville, I started playing sport and at school when I was in Grade 5. Sport was interesting and all my friends played and I enjoyed it (Tho4); when I was nine years and at Carrington heights, Gail used to take us for gym classes. She saw that I was talented and she brought me to train with the other kids (Je8); I started playing rugby in Grade 8 when I was 14 I played in the 14 D, E and F teams which are the last three teams. By the time I reached matriculation I achieved provincial colours. This shows that I improved as a player (Se2).
172 Although the learners excelled at sport at the school they were in, closer examination revealed that there were many reasons why the learners attended these schools. For the learners from disadvantaged areas, it was in search of a better education, and the former white schools they attended provided not only this but also had provision for sport. As a result, learners from the disadvantaged areas had to travel long distances to go to the former white schools, which are based in affluent suburbs. Some of the learners from the disadvantaged areas were talent searched and offered scholarships and boarding to attend the former white schools. Of the 7 black learners in this study, 6 are originally from the township and one from a rural area. Theola, who is from the rural area studied at a rural school. Of the 6 learners from the township, Jemma has moved to the city centre and goes to a former white school, and Tholethu stays at the residence at the Weston Prison where his father works and goes to a former Indian school. Of the remaining four learners, Nkosi and Nonthando stay in the township and travel to former white schools and Sekani and Siani are boarding at the former white schools they attend.
Tojan, the coloured learner, stayed in a suburb in Zululand and attends a private school.
Of the three Indian learners, two attend former white schools and one the former Indian school. Drea stays in a business area, and Daryl in an Indian township. Samiya moved from Richards Bay to La Mercy so that she could be nearer to the volleyball centre, and she attends the former Indian school. All four of the white learners who attend private schools stay in white suburbs, with one of the learners boarding at a private school, see Table 5: p 73.
Learners are either in private (5), former white (8), former Indian (1) or rural (1) schools. No learner excelling in sport and representing the KZN team attends a township school. The learners migrate to the former white schools, which are chosen because they provide better education or sporting possibilities. In establishing that learners migrate to former white schools, the focus now falls on the coaches’ and significant others’ perceptions about the contribution schools make to sporting excellence.
173 According to the netball coach, the school creates an environment for the learners’
talent to be acknowledged (show off their talent (NC5)). The provincial players who wear their blazers are appreciated by the school as they not only bring honour to the school but also promote sport at the school. Contrary to the netball coach’s belief about schools, Nkosi’s soccer club coach believes that talent should be identified at school, but since schools are not doing it (NkCC5), he has started an initiative called ‘Kick Poverty’ where he goes to every community in KZN looking for and identifying potential soccer players to join his soccer club.
Similarly, KZN athletics is not supported by schools - the schools do not have the culture of athletics (AC6). The athletics coach believes that the reason for this could lie in the administration of sport at school. The Department of Education has taken over school sport with each district having a school sports official who is not only in charge of school sport but also culture and youth affairs. To manage all this is very difficult and there are not enough people in the province to do school sport. The only people that can do something are Department and they do not have a vision (AC7). The rugby coach also voiced his disappointment about the non-existence of athletics in schools, saying it is a huge tragedy because in years gone by term three would be the massive athletics term. Now there is no athletics in Natal and it is really sad (RC2).
The rugby coach firmly believes that the former white schools are playing a huge role in providing opportunities for talented rugby players from disadvantaged backgrounds to excel in sports. He boasts that his school is one of the top former white schools in KZN, and they have a well-structured sports department. The school has initiated a programme to educate learners from the disadvantaged areas who show talent both academically and in the sporting field: we have a budget set aside from the old boys’
club or donors to educate and to board learners at a cost of about R40 000 per learner. We have about 12 learners (RC3). In sport, the movement of learners out of their once all-black townships and rural areas is the only way to promote and attain their sporting goals. These microscopic few who are fortunate enough to break away from their undesirable living areas are contributing to the integration of the provincial and national teams. This is providing a skewed sense of racial representation of the teams.
174 Schools also provide the learners with opportunities by employing experts who are able to identify talented learners. The gymnastics coach recruits most of her black gymnasts from the school, and Jemma was spotted in this way. Others who come in from the squatter camp are found by word of mouth and the white gymnasts find the club by surfing the Internet or by calling the gymnastics union (GC6). Schools also employ experts to conduct coaching courses for the teachers at schools. The soccer coach declares that there is a constant upliftment in terms of passing down knowledge to school coaches and as a result school soccer has improved tremendous (SoC2). He states that Free State and Gauteng75 schools are way above us because they play soccer for four terms a year; we just have one term dedicated to soccer. KZN has a long way to go but we are getting there (SoC3). He is also excited about the liaison his school has established with a soccer club. Their intention is in terms of development, to create an academy at school so that the learners who are playing for the club will be educated and attend the club to uplift their soccer standard (SoC4).
As far as curriculum at school is concerned, most of the learners feel that PE at school has not helped in their sporting achievement. At PE lessons they are not taught skills, they just play. It is more their coach and the club they are affiliated to that has played an important role. The soccer coach believes that the change in the PE curriculum has affected the skill and fitness levels of the learners: I am an advocate of PE being brought back. The lack of PE in primary schools is hampering the skill level. We have got boys here who are hyperactive but have no way to release their energy. They have no coordination what so ever. They actually got to tell themselves to put one foot in front of the other in order to walk. They lack hand-eye coordination and skills. We did PE at school and we played volleyball or did gymnastics or played with the hula hoop, we did things and we were exposed to a wide variety of sport. Not the kids of today (SoC5). PE at schools is given low institutional priority (Van Deventer, 2004) and its effects on the learners at schools as articulated by the soccer coach is a cause for concern.
75South Africa is made up of nine provinces. Free State and Gauteng are two of the provinces.
175 Gymnastics is an important component of the PE curriculum, according to the gymnastics coach, and should be definitely taught from Grade 1 to 7. There should also be ball skills and swimming. Swimming is a life skill and ball skills should be taught because gymnastics does not give you hand-eye coordination. It gives you balance, core strength, speed and stamina (GC7). Ever since the gymnastics coach has started coaching at the school, the principal has complimented her on the change gymnastics has brought to the learners, who are doing things here that he never thought they would achieve. They were battling to put one foot in front of the other when they walked in the door (GC8).
The netball coach also believes that talent in netball and in all codes of sport should be detected early in the learners’ schooling. This can only be done through the PE lesson by qualified PE teachers: if the learners can start at Grade 1 doing PE the teacher can begin to identify talent and this will help develop skills, soccer or netball or all the other codes of sport. (NC6). About the PE curriculum the cricket coach states: in your traditionally well-resourced schools PE has not fallen away. In our school there are two PE teachers, qualified in that area, who run the LO part of it. In the Indian and black schools PE has just died off (CC2).
The rugby coach’s philosophy on the benefits of PE is that: if you look at the bigger problem we have learners on the street between 2:15 to 4:30 and it is those 2-3 hours that the kids get up to mischief. School should offer compulsory extracurricular activities such as cultural studies, chess, debating, public speaking, drama. Would we not be solving so many problems, keeping our kids out of the street till half past four?
Would we not be keeping our kids fitter and getting more understanding? It has always shocked me that no one has come out with this. I have never heard it being mentioned at any level. I believe you will drop the crime rate and make the parents happy. But at the moment the whole curriculum it is really not working (RC4).
Closely aligned to the success of the curriculum are the personnel who teach it. The change in the curriculum has created a large vacuum in the teaching of PE. The soccer coach describes how PE is taught at his school: the PE teachers, the guidance teachers are done away with. The person who does LO in our school is a lady on the verge of
176 retirement and it is an effort for her to go to the ground. By the time she walks there and gets back the period is over. So PE takes the form of, here is the ball, make two sides and go kick around. There are no skills being taught how to trap a ball (SoC6).
The cricket coach also states that there are not enough qualified PE teachers. Most of the qualified PE teachers switched to teaching examinable subjects to secure their jobs when there was a threat of redeployment during the late 1990’s so the aims and purposes of PE are not being fulfilled (CC3). The rugby coach voices concern about the decreasing number of rugby coaches coaching at schools. He states that many of the male teachers are leaving the teaching profession and moving to either the top former white schools or going overseas. As a result, most of the ex-traditional rugby schools are not playing rugby because there is no one to coach them (RC5).
Although the learners’ sporting achievements are not influenced by the teaching of PE at school, they excel academically and this is because managing their time is to them one of the most important aspects of playing sport and studying at school. Some of the parents believe that sports training should continue throughout the year, even during examinations. The athletics coach changed his attitude about not training the athletes during examinations when one of the mothers scolded me because her son was bored at home and was not studying. So I continued training him and he obtained six A’s in his matriculation examinations (AC8). The athletics coach describes the parents and their views about training during the examinations: the white parents are much more passionate and the Indian and black parents are catching up. Of course the coloured parents have always been passionate to make the national team. They have a drive that you cannot explain (AC9). There is a positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance (Dwyer, Sallis, Blizzard, Lazarus, & Dean, 2001;
Linder, 2002; Shephard, 1997; Tremblay, Inman, & Willms, 2000).
Although the former white schools identify learners with talent in disadvantaged areas, they also ensure that the learners are academically sound. So the school will: try to get them in as early as Grade 8, when they are 13 years and put them through a five-year programme. It is however difficult to recruit a talented player in Grade 10 because he is not going to cope academically. The learners have to have some academic standard
177 when he comes to school and know that we are not going to use him to play rugby only. He has to pass Grade 12 and hopefully go to university (RC6).
Parents are aware of the importance of the school, especially in providing the best possible setting for the learners to excel in both their academic work and their chosen sport. As stated, seeking the perfect school has resulted in many learners schooling outside of their home environment. The sports programme at these schools has made it possible for the learners to engage in sport and excel in their selected code. Generally, there is a trend in South African schools for learners from previously disadvantaged schools to pursue education at former Indian, coloured and white schools (Hofmeyr, 2000). Some schools talent search and recruit learners to their schools providing them with bursaries to study because of their sporting talent. Desai and Nabbi (2010, p. 71) describe this as learners being “plucked from their homes and deposited in a foreign environment, removed from family and friends”. Nonetheless, learners from disadvantaged areas who are fortunate enough to be ‘plucked’ are those who are excelling in sport. With the history of race and segregation in South Africa as it is, it is interesting to note how in the quest to achieve learners and their parents move from the areas they stay in or attend schools that will nurture and grow the potential of the learners. It would seem that private and former white schools provide the sporting edge required to succeed in sport.
The data suggest that the PE curriculum has very little or no effect on the learners’
sporting achievements or in identifying their sporting skills, as the teaching of PE is of a very low standard, with non-specialist teachers appointed to teach the subject.
According to Rajput (2010b), non-specialist teachers who teach PE do not have the knowledge or skill to teach the PE curriculum. However, it is the school’s sporting ethos that provides the avenue for sport to be played at school, and it is the affiliation of the sporting teams to the various levels that affords the learners the chance to show their talent and move up the ranks. The learners ensure that there is a balance between their academic work and sports, and many of the learners excel in both.
Finally, the changing role of the schools, especially the private and former white schools, gives the impression that these are the only schools that can provide for
178 excellence to take place. The talent which is found in the rural and township schools is not nurtured and grown, and ownership of these talented learners does not belong to these schools. Talent is depleted from the township and rural areas, and the learners are drawn towards the private and former white schools which act like magnets. The migration of learners to the private and former white schools has enabled sporting excellence to become a phenomenon of the privileged and well-resourced schools. In the former white schools this also promotes racial integration and racial balance within the school, which enables them to transform.
Thus, schooling in the South African context demonstrates a uniqueness as to how school as an institution shapes the learners within the transforming environment, providing not only better education but also an avenue to promote their sporting agendas.
The next salient notion will provide an understanding of how being involved in the KZN sporting teams provides a catalyst for learners to unite as a team and identify with national entities.