Sport funding of schools in low socio- economic communities in Gauteng

Abstract

In 1959, opinions regarding sport and its place in education were expressed for the first time at an international conference “Sport, Work and Health” organised by UNESCO, (ED-76/Conf). Leisure and sport activities are thought to be developmentally important because it provides opportunities for skill development and the formation of social relationship during adolescence (Fourie, Slabbert & Saaymen, 2011. Children from the Low Socio-Economic Community often grow up without the opportunity to sharpen these skills and qualities in them due to meagre of physical education programmes which are professional structured to develop their talent. Walter (2014) concluded that in South Africa children from historically black communities and schools previously disadvantage by apartheid, have limited physical activity opportunities due to the marginalization of physical education in the school curriculum, inadequate extra-curriculum, community sports provision, the paucity or poor standard of available facilities and equipment. The condition has remained perpetual from generation to generation with no change in how sport programmes are structured. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence, nature, and importance of funding to schools in Low socio- Economic communities. Sport is widely regarded as a social agent that connects many grassroots communities, whereas business has more difficulty reaching communities on their own (Dhurup,2012). The overall aim of the study was to establish the core fundamental problems of insufficient funding in sport for marginalised schools in Gauteng. Inadequate funding has been identified as a major setback facing sports development in low socio-economic schools in South Africa (Elumilade, Asaolu, Oladoyin & Oladele, 2006). The interest in soccer is so pervasive that rough open land is used for practice session, although these areas are uneven covered with stones and in some instance broken glass, it is salutary to observe how passive the coaches and players are in the face of what one admittedly deplorable condition (Williams and Atkinson, 2009). Despite the poor condition in which township schools must conduct sports programmes, the schools have not given up and sporting codes like soccer, athletics and netball are played in townships like Kagiso. There is sufficient evidence for the researcher to make a conclusion that funding problem at Low socio-economic school are exacerbate by lack of ownership and support from both parents and school’s official who priorities more on academics and less extramural activities at schools.