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With more than 90% of schools in South Africa without a sports programme, retired cricket legend Vince van Der Bijl believes it’s vital to bring sports back into schools.
Van der Bijl, who is also founder of Masi Sports, has developed various sport and life skills programmes in Masiphumelele.
“In South Africa 94% of all schools has no sport after school. We have won three world cups, we’ve been top of every single format in cricket, we have olympic champions basically from 6% of our population and it is absurd.
“Sport, life skills and education can start to heal this incredibly divided country and the way to do it is to bring sport to schools.
“Don’t ask the school to go to a club or a province, even though that could work but it won’t change people.”
Van der Bijl, who hails from Fish Hoek, was initially asked to assist with cricket at Ukhanyo Primary School in 2016.
“I had just recovered from double cancer, I was getting back on my feet again and I said that I was happy to work pro-bono. I just worked here ever since. It does take about 18 months to get the trust of people in any environment.”
He added that it was not only about sport but also about making a difference and what learners did outside of sport.
“We had this vision and I initially linked myself to an education NPO but we are about to become our own NPO because we have grown so much.
“With a school learner population of 1 910, in our sports we have to have a 20 to 1 ratio with coaches.
The junior school which started out with one sports ground, used for netball and other sports, has since grown.
“The last of our big facilities came when Fred Alge, who was an American, gifted us this amazing field. You can tackle on it and you can dive on it.
“So soccer and rugby predominantly is played on the field and we will put in a cricket pitch quite soon.”
He added that the sports field also allowed learners to practice athletics around the field.
“Our athletes can run around it so when we have inter-house and athletics competitions for the first time they are able to practice athletics at the school.”
Van der Bijl said it is important for schools to have their own sports fields.
“I understand there is a need for sporting hubs in underprivileged areas but you really need to have a field at your school because you need the teachers involved.
“I’ve been a sports guy all my life and it took me a while to realise that sport itself did not change my life, it was the life skills I learnt. So, we partnered with a life skills NPO and have life skill sessions at the beginning of each sport.”
He added that students learn life skills such as team work, discipline, punctuality and knowing what it’s like to be part of a group and feeling proud of it.
“We are in the process of working with the sport and education department to bring in five schools in the Western Cape to run a two-day workshop. All I can do is advise and bring in the people who need advise like headmasters, headmistresses and school governing bodies to start replicating this.”
Learners at Ukhanyo don’t only focus on sport but also dance and other life skills.
“We’ve got chess, we have hip-hop dance, there’s a choir...it’s not just all sports.”
Having sport and life-skills programmes at the school has impacted learners behaviour and outlook on life.
“You don’t find litter here, the learners marks have improved, they arrive on time, there is no absenteeism so they are very proud to play. We have inter-schools sports and towards the end of the year we are going to introduce proper art classes such as chess, choir and art tuition which is very important.”
