About Us

The PlayerNation programme is a community-driven initiative committed to fostering positive transformation through sports in schools and communities. Rooted in the belief that sports can be a powerful catalyst for personal development, unity, and societal change, the project engages with schools, educators, and learners to instil a love for physical activity, teamwork, and the values inherent in sportsmanship.

Implemented through a network of dedicated Town Sports Assistants (TSAs), the PlayerNation Project collaborates with government departments, private sector partners, and local communities to create a supportive ecosystem for sports development. By organizing and facilitating various sports-related activities, workshops, and events, the project aims to empower youth, enhance community cohesion, and provide opportunities for personal growth, leadership, and skill development.

From intra-school leagues to large-scale regional events, the PlayerNation programme is committed to building a sustainable legacy of positive change, where the joy of sports becomes a vehicle for empowerment, inclusivity, and the holistic development of individuals and communities.

Objectives

The primary objectives of the PlayerNation programme are rooted in empowering communities through sports. The program aims to provide accessible and inclusive platforms for physical activity within schools, fostering a culture of sportsmanship and teamwork. By engaging with educators, learners, and local stakeholders, the project seeks to promote holistic development, health and wellness, and a sense of belonging within the community.

Goals

The overarching goals of the PlayerNation Project revolve around creating a sustainable and positive impact. These include establishing intra-school sports leagues, cultivating a love for sports among learners, and developing leadership skills through the role of Town Sports Assistant (TSAs). Additionally, the project endeavours to forge partnerships with governmental departments and the private sector to secure support for expanding its reach and enhancing the quality of sports programs. Ultimately, the PlayerNation Project aspires to contribute to the overall well-being and development of individuals and communities through the transformative power of sports.

Design, Development & Implementation

A systems design approach was adopted to develop the PlayerNation programme and the resulting holistic solution.

The solution focuses on rebuilding strong structures and systems to support sustainable leagues and enjoy increased participation of school learners. Successful programmes are always about preparing people and improving the practice, and it is about the quality and quantity of participation as well as the strive for ultimate performance, tightly orchestrated through a seamless coordination and communication system, wrapped in a success recipe.

The final programme designs were constructed, planned and implemented. Measurement, evaluation and verification of workstreams were integrated to provide continual feedback on intervention impact. A critical Quality and Continuous Improvement Stream is included to ensure the continual improvement of the programme roll-out, and ongoing development of school sports, closing the loop on a programme designed for success.

Using the Logical Framework Theory to Design and Develop the IOS 5P Model as a Framework for School Sport Development

The logical framework approach is a systematic and analytical process for objectives-oriented project planning and management. Using the 5P model, the programme design organised the envisaged objectives into five categories of delivery, i.e. People, Places, Performance, Platforms, and Prizes and Participation. This provided a foundation for solution design and planning in each area.

The 5Ps are as follows:

1.  People Capacitation (skills and capacity building)

2.  Places Development (like CLUBSMART or AGRI SMART or CLINIC SMART) which is grounded in the philosophical construct that “a well-trained nurse can only function optimally in a wellrun clinic.”

3.  Performance Management (the SMART iQ QMI chart and the Impact PMI (Performance Measurement Indicators) such as the UN SDG Goals, the B-BBEE Scorecard, the Mining SLP Scorecard, SARS Rebates, YES, etc.) are all elements of the programmes in terms of the following prizes and participation.

4.  Platforms for Orchestration or Coordination to create single points of control and scale. These platforms must be both physical and digital where coordinating structures like Community Response Task Teams are set up to manage the demand and supply responses. The digital tools are used as delivery, tracking, monitoring, and measurement tools.

5.  Prizes and Participation:
Participation Mobilisation is where well-defined activities and practices are used as key demand drivers and pull factors such as Choir Eisteddfods, Sports Leagues, Champs of Champs, Chronic Medicine Distribution and Consumption, etc.Prize Incentives as rewards based on the QMI performance such as the Gold Status Certificates, that will entitle a hospital/clinic to a new MRI Scanner or in School Sports, to new Sports Equipment like a full set of Athletics equipment.

The Six Programme Drivers

The PlayerNation solution design construct is made up of six programme drivers that were configured to ensure a well-balanced and integrated approach to the holistic development of a school to become a sport and physical education promoting school.

The six (6) drivers are outline in the diagram below:

One of the main drivers is to train and deploy hundreds of thousands of youth volunteers, through the Teacher Assistants Programme, an initiative of Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) as the key implementation practitioners in the following areas of school sport and physical education delivery:

 

    • Youth Sport Leaders
    • Event and League Organisers
    • Assistant Coaches
    • Assistant PhysEd Teacher Aids
    • Sport Facility Caretakers
    • Caretakers of Sports Equipment and Gear
    • IT Technology Assistants for e-Learning and to operate the eSport Technology
    • Gig Workers and SMME owners of sport related micro-enterprises at grassroots level

National School Sport Indaba

Minister Zizi Kodwa, as the Minister for Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSAC) organised an indaba in September 2023 to address the issues facing school sport and physical education in South Africa and to reunify the fractured school sport system.

He appointed John O’Connor and the Institute of Sport (IOS) to be the Lead Facilitators and Coordinators of the conference and indaba.

More than 500 delegates attended the conference including DBE, SASCOC and International Delegates.

The conference culminated with a joint resolution signed by DSAC, DBE and SASCOC.

DSAC has subsequently approached John O’Connor and IOS to develop the final indaba report and implementation plan for school sport and physical education as an output of the National Indaba Resolution.

DSAC also wants to adopt the PlayerNation solution as the Blueprint for School Sport and physical education for South Africa.

Physical Education Blueprint: PhysEd SMART

IOS collaborated with DBE, the UNESCO Desk of South Africa and PEISA to design and develop a physical education implementation blueprint and framework for South Africa 5/6 years ago to reintroduce physical education in all public schools in South Africa.

The solution comprised of the following elements:

 

    • A PhysEd SMART Toolkit, QMI Chart and Turnkey Solution
    • CATHSSETA and ETDP SETA accredited physical education training programmes for teachers and teacher assistants
    • CAPS aligned physical education Lesson Plans from Grade 0 – Grade 12
    • PhysEd Technology Platform to coordinate and manage physical education activities in schools smartly and intelligently
    • PhysEd Operations Manual and Guidebooks
    • PhysEd equipment starter packs as Teaching & Learning Materials
    • Guidelines of physical education uniforms for boys and girls

Digital Technologies and 4IR for School Sport and PhysEd

SmartNova and Campus+ are the two main technology stacks that drive the coordination, management of school sport and physical education and as the information management system of the programme.

SmartNova is the Sport Information Management System, database and League Management System. It is also the backbone for the SCHOOL SPORT SMART turnkey solution, toolkit and Quality Measurement Index (QMI) that was designed to achieve Gold Status Schools as sport promoting schools.

Campus+ is a world-class Learning and Talent Management Platform for the delivery of eLearning-based training and skills development of teachers and youth volunteers. It is also an athlete/player and coach talent management and tracking system with an embedded Sports Career Wallet and Sport or PhysEd Career Card and a blockchain enabled Jobs Portal.

Vodacom have expressed a keen interest to be network carrier partner of the programme.