It would really be funny if students lives weren't at stake!</SPAN></DIV><DIV><SPAN class=TopStory></SPAN></DIV><DIV><SPAN class=TopStory>Get those grades!</SPAN><SPAN class=Subheadline>ISSA targets schools that exploit student-athletes</SPAN></DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD>KAYON RAYNOR, Observer staff reporter
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>RADCLIFFE... we need to be a little more proactive</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>HIGH school adminis-trators who exploit academically challenged student-athletes for the sake of sports will find it harder to accomplish in the upcoming school year.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This as the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) has formulated a system to deter, and in some cases, catch high school operatives who flout their laws and allow students to take part in sports, even though they have not attained the minimal academic standard of averaging 45 per cent in four subjects.<P class=StoryText align=justify>ISSA is responsible for the running of all organised sports at the high school level in Jamaica.President of ISSA Clement Radcliffe insists that this unethical practice will no longer be tolerated.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The fact is that the executive has agreed that we need to be a little more proactive, so effective this September a permanent team will be established - whose primary responsibility is to randomly select schools and athletes and go in to check the records.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"This will begin in September with football, possibly netball and basketball," Radcliffe told the Observer in an exclusive interview yesterday.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Incidentally, the annual schoolboy football season - including the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions - is due to kick-off on September 9.<P class=StoryText align=justify>According to the veteran administrator: "In recent times concerns have been raised and the main contention is that our (ISSA's) rules are not being respected by some of our members.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Frankly, we have no proof of this and what our approach had been in the past is that when specific allegations are made, they are investigated through a team that would visit the institutions and check the records."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Approximately 140 schools are on the books of ISSA, of which 120 take part in football.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Radcliffe, who is also the principal of Glenmuir High School, is pleading with those people aware of these breaches to advise ISSA so that it can take corrective action.
"The most effective means of policing our competitions will be the proactive approach by the wider community and also neighbouring schools," he said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Almost a year-and-a-half ago, the Observer in an investigative story titled "For the glory of schools ... but at what cost to student athletes", revealed that "some coaches believe it is not their responsibility to focus on the academic well-being of the student-athletes, saying instead, that it was the responsibility of subject teachers".<P class=StoryText align=justify>The story further stated that "while some teachers accept the responsibility in principle, they say the 15-20 hours per week of athletics