Are you a betting person? Can you believe, in one report found on the internet, it was stated that in 2024, 60% of people worldwide placed at least one sports bet in the previous 12 months. That is an extraordinary figure. We should not be surprised therefore (but definitely should be concerned) that many parents, it is believed, bet on school sporting fixtures in which their children compete. That is a disturbing fact. Do you want to bet?
As examples of the former point, we can read that in 2005, one Liverpool fan bet £200 on Xabi Alonso, one of their players, scoring a goal from his own half at odds of 125/1. A year later against Luton, it happened. The year before, the father of Rory McIlroy bet £200 at 500/1 that his teenage son would win the British Open within a decade: Rory won it in 2014 and his father won £100,000. In 2015/2016, Leicester City were 5000/1 outsiders to win the English Premier League, but one man placed £100 on them and won. In 1996, a tipster put £62 on the jockey Frankie Dettori winning all seven of his rides in one day at Ascot; he did and the man lifted £550,000, thank you very much!
Many Zimbabweans follow the English Premier League, the most-watched sports league in the world, with a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people (out of a world population of 8.2 billion). That is a very wide audience! As of the 2025-2026 Premier League season, eleven of the twenty clubs in the EPL advertise betting companies on the front of their shirts, though a voluntary ban on such sponsors will be introduced for the 2026-2027 season. In addition, it might be added that huge advertisements surround the pitches of many clubs stating, “Gamble Responsibly”. That means that a massive amount of people is being encouraged indirectly to bet.
Let us turn our thoughts back to education and consider this: how much of education is a gamble? Is it a gamble when we wonder if our child will come out of education wiser or richer or successful? If we are paying for our child’s education, are we betting on their future? Will all the money we spend on education reap rewards for us and for our children? These are all good, interesting questions but here is the point, though: education is not about betting but it is about a better.
Education is all about better – not better results, we must be quick to understand. Results are not the key or important factor. Neither is it about one school being better than another, as all schools are different and we cannot compare different things. No, the better way is when we look at developing better people with better values. In that regard, we have noted before how the All Blacks rugby side have for years held the mantras (which have been seen to be the reason they have been so successful on the field of play) regarding a better shed, a better shirt, better people.
They declare they will leave the shed (dressing room) in a better condition than when they go into it; they endeavour to leave the shirt (the honour of playing for their country) in a better state than when they started playing for their country; and they contend that a better person makes a better player. Better be better if we want to be better.
We will be better off when we understand that the purpose of education is to make children better people, not better academics or better sportsmen but better people. To do that teachers and parents must in turn be better people. Then we must make our institutions better places by having better people so that the country can be better. Yes, we want a better person, not a betting man.
It is clear then that betting is a highly addictive, dangerous yet widespread activity. We might deduce that thinking of education in this manner is a risk, a gamble, but we should remember that the current education system is equally (if not more so) a big gamble; there is no guarantee of work, after all. It is as if we continue to do what we have always done in the belief that one day our ball will land on the right jackpot number.
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We do not desire children to be betting people but better people. If anyone feels differently, then perhaps he is a better person. We must very simply give our children a chance to be better. Are you a betting person? Better you be a better person – there is no risk or luck to that, just real life skills.
