Education in relation to sports

There is no doubt that a well educated sportsman has more chances than an uneducated one though the latter can manage to excel as well.

Research reveals an uneducated sportsman lacks perseverance, consistency and sustainability in their career compared to well educated players who seem to behave in a good manner and the majority proved to be aware of what they are doing and they don’t need counseling because they are guided by self discipline.

We still remember one of the measures taken by Malawi Football Federation in the mid 1970s was to introduce a policy of screening their national football team, the Flames, to get rid of academically poor players from the team.

They had a motive for the move, believing that a well educated player can easily cope with the complex drills given by trainers and facilitate communication between the players and the technical bench.

Tanzania can never dare take such measures that seem to discriminate its people, fearing to violate the constitutional right of citizens by denying them the right to participate in social activities provided they don’t violate the law.

May be in future such a move can be taken if at all it can help to raise Tanzania’s football standard.

Sometimes the country has to take tough measures that look extremely harsh for a short moment, but can prove to be the perfect remedy to a chronic disease later.

Most of our players had the opportunity to start professional career in Europe but they did let it slip over their fingers for what we still suspect was communication huddles and an uncultivated attitude caused by lack of a decent academic background.

A good example of how education can help a player to excellence is what has been achieved by Leodgar Tenga who has been very successful as an intellectual and one of the leading and most respected sportsmen in Tanzania.

Tenga’s era had many superstars but what makes the difference between them is that Tenga was visionary; he and his parents knew the importance of education just as they realised the talent that the boy had, therefore they supported him and today he is what he is because of both education and tailent.

Let us be honest; the culture and the environment in our social life has affected our communication skills by not giving attention to foreign languages while the majority of coaches coming to Tanzania, all speak English and other foreign languages though many of them speak broken English that needs to be translated by assistant coaches who are extremely poor in understanding the language hence the mess since players cannot grasp instructions from coaches.

So with all the plans, programs and projections this will remain a serious problem in the short and medium term preparations.

While this can be tackled if at all clubs and the federation can bear in mind that football has no borders and if the players and the clubs want to excel, they should also think of introducing communication and language skills classes to build players’ confidence. This will enable them to face foreign journalists confidently and won’t hesitate to pursue their professional career abroad.

How many former football players possess the required qualification for TFF president position? Of course they are very few and this leads to what is happening now. Football is always led not by football players; just to answer the question that has been asked for years.

I would advise parents of kids who are the future of Tanzania’s football to take education as a priority without ignoring their kids’ talents.

They should also emphasise on language skills from the very beginning.

As per research, Tanzanian players, of all the things they feel shy doing, is pursuing their careers outside Tanzania because of communication the barrier. The same is true with most of our local coaches who are pushing and spurring each other for a chance to coach Ruvu JKT, Ruvu Shooting or Kagera Sugar, among other teams, fearing to cross borders as professional coaches.

It is never too late