Integrity of school games will only be restored if real culprits are punished

This year's national Term One games begin on Tuesday in Kisumu County. Over 3,600 learners will have an opportunity not just to showcase their talents but to also launch future sporting careers.

It goes without say that over the years, these games have played a key role in tapping and nurturing talents of celebrated sports stars whose careers began on school fields.

However, it’s regrettable that in pursuit of glory, a dark shadow of dishonesty has continuously engulfed co-curricular activities.

The Ministry of Education has set age limits for participants as under-12 for primary, under-15 for junior secondary school and under-19 for secondary school learners. These guidelines are not mere suggestions but benchmarks of physiological and developmental fairness.

Fielding a 20-year-old against 15-year-olds in a competitive setting does not just disadvantage them but also puts them at risk of sustaining injuries due to differences in development.

It’s sad that institutions of high repute such as Asumbi Girls High School and Agoro Sare who had won the Nyanza Region basketball titles were disqualified and banned for allegedly falsifying student documents to enable cheating.

While the win-at-all-costs mentality is celebrated in professional arenas, its infiltration into school sports is a serious threat to the very foundation of character development.

At the centre of this crisis lies a breach of trust by individuals entrusted to instill good values and morals. Teachers, coaches and school heads are supposed to be the gatekeepers, but they are, unfortunately, fully involved in these vices.

They create this mess in offices where birth certificates are doctored. When school administrators overlook such forged documents to secure a trophy, they are not helping the schools but teaching their students that dishonesty is the most effective tool for success.

Honesty and integrity within the education sector and relevant government entities such as the Directorate of Civil Registration Services are the only sustainable cures for this epidemic.

A school head with a firm moral backbone will never ignore their professional ethics for a title. A teacher or coach with integrity understands that true mentorship involves teaching young ones how to win with honour and lose with dignity, not how to cheat with impunity.

It has been a standard procedure that when a school is caught cheating, it is disqualified and banned. Nonetheless, this approach has not been effective because it’s flawed for it punishes students who play by the rules but find themselves at the receiving end of bad decisions made by deceitful adults.

Banning a school shatters the dreams of honest athletes while the real perpetrators (teachers and principals) remain in their positions and continue to draw salaries despite their questionable character.

To stop punishing students, the ministry must work closely with the Teachers Service Commission and start holding individuals accountable. We urge the ministry to report teachers and principals involved in malpractices to TSC, which must then initiate disciplinary proceedings such as interdiction and permanent deregistration of those found complicit in document falsification or any other form of cheating.

Such individuals should face the consequences of their actions because fraud is a criminal offense, and those who forge documents must face the full force of law.

To curb cheating in school sports, the personal cost of dishonesty must be higher than perceived glory of fraudulent victories. Only when educators lead with unshakable integrity will schools games return to being incubators of talent rather than scenes of deception. For the right age to play, the ministry and TSC must crack the whip and punish the real culprits.