Suburban
There is a possibility that schools sport, which is a key component of junior sports development, might continue to suffer due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the 2021 first term opening has been shelved as part of measures to control the coronavirus.
Suburban Reporter
Government on Saturday pronounced stringent lockdown measures to prevent the spreading of Covid-19 while the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had earlier deferred the opening of the first term, which was originally scheduled for Monday this week.
The Education Ministry said only 2020 Zimsec Ordinary and Advanced Level students will go back to school to finish sitting for the examinations they began writing in December 2020 while Government monitors the situation in view of a surge in Covid-19 cases since onset of the festive season.
What this basically means is that school athletes might be inactive for another term should the current lockdown be extended. In any event, even if the 30-day lockdown is relaxed and schools are reopened it does not follow that sporting activities will begin immediately especially at schools. This is because learners will be trying to catch up on lost time on their academic studies while the protocols needed to ensure the safety of athletes require money which the majority of public schools cannot afford.
Last year, schools closed in March and reopened in October but without extra curricula activities such as sports on the calendar.
While the development ensured school children were safe during the pandemic, it affected budding athletes who missed the busy National Secondary School Heads (NASH) and National Association of Primary School Heads (NAPH) calendar.
When schools closed early in March last year, the athletics season, which was underway, was affected as the provincial and national competitions were called off.
The ball games did not take place as well including the traditional tournaments such as the Copa Cola Games.
Last year, NASH president Arthur Maphosa told our sister publication The Herald that it was a missed opportunity which was heartbreaking.
“Our learners have been affected big time. Ball games, which normally take centre stage in term two and three, have been shelved. Covid-19 has dealt a body blow to our athletes.
“Imagine missing the most exciting sports event in the Nash calendar such as the Under-15 Copa Coca-Cola football games.
“Athletes missed monetary prizes and missed opportunities of being selected into the football Coca-Cola dream team, which travels annually to East Africa for regional finals.
“For the first time, our boys reached the finals last year (2019).
“We had hoped to get to the finals again in 2020 and avenge that painful defeat to Tanzania in 2019.
“It is every young player’s dream to represent his or her country and to fly in an airplane to different places.
“That the feel-good factor was thwarted by the pandemic and some learners will be above 15 in 2021.
“Never again to play in the Coca-Cola finals, it hurts,” Maphosa said last year.
Maphosa said the missed opportunities will have ripple effects for the athletes, some whom were supposed to get selected into national teams.
However, when learning resumed in October last year a number of private schools were participating in some sports following clearance by the relevant sporting bodies.
It was not an entirely inactive third term for budding athletes at the private schools as some were involved in sports with less contact such as swimming, equestrian and rowing as they were able to take part in a number of tournaments and training camps.
Before the schools reopened in October, young sports enthusiasts at private schools had resorted to keep in shape through individual training programmes recommended by their coaches. But the majority of athletes at public schools cannot afford such programmes because of lack of equipment and financial resources.
