•Only students who have stayed in their respective schools for at least 90 days before the official commencement of the Term One games at the zonal level qualify to enter the competition.
Image: EMMANUEL SABUNI
National 15s rugby champions Koyonzo Secondary School were dealt a severe blow in their title retention quest after they were disqualified from the Western Region Secondary Schools Term One Games.
Tournament organizers cracked the whip on Koyonzo after finding them culpable of fielding an ineligible player during their tie against Butula Boys High School.
This followed a successful appeal by the Butula 15s rugby team.
According to sources, the said player was transferred from another school but had not completed the recommended 90 days in his new school, thus contravening the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) rules.
Only students who have stayed in their respective schools for at least 90 days before the official commencement of the Term One games at the zonal level qualify to enter the competition.
The rule, which excludes Form One students, states that all new students must have reported to the school by November 15 of the preceding year for them to be fielded.
Students repeating will not be allowed to participate during the repeating year. Such students can nevertheless be allowed to participate in the following year. This rule bars all Form Four repeaters from the field of play during the repeating year.
According to KSSSA, a student may participate in the secondary schools’ championships for a maximum period of six continuous years.
With cases of age cheating becoming rampant, the Ministry of Education and KSSSA rolled out further measures to curb the trend.
One such step is to ensure students participating in school games are captured in the National Education Management Information System, NEMIS, before they can be allowed to compete.
Schools are required to enter the student’s Unique Personal Identifier, UPI, onto a special declaration form.
Other details to be provided on the declaration form are the student’s full name, Form/ Class, admission number, date of admission, date of birth, KCPE index number, and the KCPE year.This makes it easy to eliminate cases of age cheating and impersonation.
The coach or games teacher and the principal are also required to sign the declaration form indicating that the presented players/ participants are bonafide students.
KSSSA effectively limited the number of foreign players to be included in a school’s team, allowing schools to add a maximum of 4 foreign players to their teams and all these players can be fielded at the same time.
But, for other team games (basketball, hockey, Rugby, volleyball, netball, and handball) schools will be allowed to include a maximum of three foreign players; with only two featuring for the team during a match at a time.
The body went ahead and placed a ceiling on the number of players that a school can transfer from another school. Consequently, no school will be allowed to transfer more than 2 players from another (same) school.
Such stern measures are pertinent in the fight against age cheating. Corruption should be discouraged at all levels of sports.
Encouraging students to cheat in school paves the way for a generation that will find it extremely difficult to abide by the prescribed laws of the Land.
Corruption effectively denies deserving learners an opportunity to showcase their potential.