adminSikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) has blamed the lack of technology as the main reason behind age-cheating during competitions. There are, however, calls to make age-cheating a crime.
Over the years there have been reports of massive age-cheating in schools’ competitions mainly in the Nash-run ones.
With schools having opened for the first term this week, athletics competitions will start soon and Chronicle Sport sought a comment from Nash national chairman Johnson Madhuku on measures that will be put in place to curb cheating.
“Cheating is a national problem and to expect schools to remedy that will be asking far too much. Unless we have the required technology that will allow us to scientifically determine our athletes’ correct ages, the problem will persist,” said Madhuku, a headmaster at Pamushana High School in Masvingo.
He, however, said they will use Grade Seven results as part of their vetting exercise especially in the Under-16 age group.
The Pamushana High School headmaster called on the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture to assist by buying the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to be used during schools sport.
Meanwhile, Naph roundly condemned the problem of age-cheating and called for stiffer penalties on any teacher, head or school that is found cheating.
“It’s actually an act of misconduct to cheat but as Naph we’ve since introduced traceable cards, more like passports that a child is issued with from Grade One. Even if he transfers to another school, the child must produce that card and without it one cannot be enrolled. During our sports programmes we use that card and make follow ups but it’s sad that some schools still try to go around that by taking off the child’s picture and putting a wrong one,” said the Naph national president Cynthia Khumalo.
She said since they introduced the card, they have managed to quickly detect and catch cheaters. Khumalo was, however, of the view that punishment was not deterrent enough.
“As Naph we’re really disturbed by cheating in our competitions but we will continue coming up with new measures as we strive to totally eradicate it. Teachers and schools should be aware that it’s not just about winning but developing the pupils’ sporting talents,” she said.
Minister Andrew Langa was recently quoted saying cheating needs to be made a criminal offence and will during the course of the year consult his Cabinet colleagues to come up with appropriate legislation.
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