Jamaica Secondary High Schools: Transfer of students?

[Karl]

So-called buying of student athletes to come to an end?

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has tabled a ministry paper in parliament outlining measures aimed at stopping the so-called buying of student athletes by schools.

Describing the practice as unethical, Thwaites says the primary goal of a school is the formal education of students.

He says there should be no transfer of students primarily for sporting activities without due consideration for their academic development.

The new regulations stipulate that the sending and receiving schools and parents must sign consent forms before presentation to the Ministry of Education for approval of the request to transfer a student.

Thwaites says the ministry will review the student’s academic record to determine if he or she is able to cope with the curriculum of the receiving school.

In addition, Thwaites says the transfer of students between schools must not involve economic gain to the student, parent or guardian and their involvement in sports should not compromise their educational advancement.

Thwaites also says Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association will continue to impose a mandatory one-year wait period, but will add the option of additional waiting periods or school bans where there are proven breaches in the transfer process.

However, Opposition members took issue with the new measures with Derrick Smith saying the measures should be withdrawn as they impinge on individual rights

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/2...letes-come-end

[Karl]

Sense or Nonsense? -

- Parents have no right to cherry-pick schools
- Our schools must stop importing performance enhancing students for sports
- Our schools are not sports academies where the entry requirement is, understandably, sports prowess. If we continue to use them as such, we will, among things discriminate unfairly against our poor, young citizens who have earned, at great sacrifice, the right to a basic education at a given school, but have latent or no sports talent or interest
- The overarching focus on competitive sports in our schools is counterproductive
- Let us prevent the conflict between the education of our youth and sports


- Source: Parents have no right to cherry-pick schools by Guest Columnist, Lascelve Graham.
The Gleaner, Saturday March 28, 2015.

Minister Thwaites is to be highly commended for his courageous move in Parliament on February 23 when he announced measures to be implemented in order to curtail the business of our high schools 'buying' sport talent. He showed the testicular fortitude necessary if we are to bring about meaningful change in an environment of partisan politics and mindless fanatical support for sports, encouraged by some of our leaders.

One must expect hostility from principals, coaches and past students whose schools benefit and who pursue relentlessly the glory and the funds that flow from their win-at-all-costs, the ends-justifying-the-means, insular and selfish approach.

I hope the bureaucracy in the ministry will allow this revised policy to survive and to flourish. Remember, in the time that it was being practised, the heinous crime of slavery was not against the rules! Rules must change as our consciousness and understanding increase.

While the minister has not gone far enough, he has taken a small, potentially significant step in the right direction. He has sought to stem the most extreme abuse of the transfer system by our schools for sports purposes.


http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/c...y-pick-schools

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mi she, where are the stats?
...and where are the facts on benefits to:
- student,

- school the athlete left,

- school the student joined?

Hey...the tracking stats???