The establishment of the National Sport School : lessons learned

Abstract

In Establishing the National Sport School way back in 2012, it was being foreseen its students would pursue the dual career approach. This entailed students striving for both academic and sporting excellence. This study attempts to analyses whether at its early stage of operation, the National Sport School is reaching its goals or not. To this end the experience of the first two cohorts that finished their secondary level in this school, together with the experiences of their teachers were collated.

The NSS initiative was part of a holistic policy framework for sports and seems to follow similar foreign sport schools’ models which were evaluated in the study. The findings show that albeit being in an infant stage the NSS is reaching its objectives of a dual career approach. The school has a strong ethos and both teachers and students have a strong sense of belonging.

Nonetheless, policy shortcomings were identified like for example the lack of an exit policy, the continuation gap, better coaching staff and lack of certain facilities amongst others, which needs to be addressed.