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Commissioner Rev Duncans Mugumya compares a 14 year old female athlete with Shafiq Nkuti of Mbogo Mixed who claims to be 14 years old
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Age cheating has been a long time vice in Uganda schools sports competitions at all levels from primary competitions to higher institutions of learning.
The vice that has majorly been facilitated by schools sports teachers and to some extent school administrators, has stayed on for years since schools started competing in different sports disciplines in the country.
After decades and with the coming in of Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) to run secondary schools competitions, there have been endless battles against ineligibility as the association tried to put in place strict measures against it but still, many schools have not taken heed.
The just concluded USSSA ball games II produced one of the most welcoming measures to scare away age cheating in secondary schools competitions where state minister for sports Peter Ogwang ordered the arrest and detention at Soroti Police, of Nguta Shafiq, a Congolese who was playing fr Mbogo Mixed in the basketball 3x3.
PES Commissioner seems unconvinced with Nguta Shafiq who claims he is 14 years old.
This happened on final day of the championship as the minister and commissioner PES Rec Can Duncans Mugumya suspected Nguta for overage while they inspected the two boys’ teams Buddo SS and Mbogo Mixed and when he was asked of his age, he said he was 14.
While speaking to the congregation at the closing ceremony, minister Ogwang emphasised how he was ready to clean up age cheating in schools.
“We have been forced to arrest him because it has been a long time vice in schools sports and to the worst, some teachers go as far as Congo and ferry ineligible players into Uganda thinking they will not be discovered. We are ready to fight this and his games teacher and the administrator must also appear in court because there is the law (the sports bill),” Ogwang said.
Nguta Shafiq played all basketball 3x3 games for Mbogo Mixed before he was stopped in the final against Buddo SS and eventually detained.
How schools have beaten USSSA online registration system to cheat
While USSSA established an online registration two years ago for all athletes each competition year, so to curb the vice, the schools devised new means of cheating.
With the online registration denying entry of ineligible players who are above the age or have repeated classes or are past the secondary school set up, the new tricks the schools have discovered have among others, included going foreign majorly in DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania and get foreign students whose age and academic statuses can not easily be traced.
Others have devised means of helping older students to reaseat P.7 so they have fresh and genuine PLE passslips indicating they are younger on paper but with a physically old looking.
Is USSSA’s fight taking a positive bearing?
With the online registration, USSSA approached UNEB and FUFA so to coordinate elimination of ineligibility where UNEB allowed easy access to Education Management Information System (EMIS) and Learners’ Identification Number (LIN) in addition to FUFA Connect, but this has also been beaten by cheats who reseat PLE.
For this, USSSA president Justus Mugisha says the association is coming up with a new strategy of requesting UNEB to avail a consistent EMIS of learners, right from primary Five.
“Starting next year (2025), we shall register only athletes with an EMIS that goes back to P.5 and we shall see how those who reseat PLE will continue. We believe that the apparent strategies have played a big part in checking the ineligibility cases in our games and once this new strategy is put in place, we shall be good to go against the vice,” Mugisha said.
And whether Nguta proves guilty or not, the ministry in conjunction with USSSA need to look at engaging NIRA for the biodata of all all athletes before the tournaments commence and also look at a regulation on the usage of foreign players.
