THE evidence that sport can be a viable career option for the talented young is all around.

We need only contemplate the success of celebrated Jamaican sportsmen and women.

Also beyond dispute is that many, if not most of these Jamaican stars would most probably never have succeeded but for the nurturing they received at high schools under the auspices of Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) competitions.

Fifty years ago or more, recognition that school profile was lifted almost beyond measure by success and excellence in sport triggered what became an increasingly popular practice of recruiting teenagers with obvious sporting talent and potential.

In effect, those high schools offered sports scholarships, which were colloquially referred to as ‘buying’.

Back in those days, high schools were few and far between, and the majority of Jamaicans never made it beyond an elementary education. For many talented teenage athletes, those sports scholarships presented the only opportunity to gain higher education.

Truth be told, though, even in those days there was the practice — frowned on by many educators — of student athletes being lured from one high school to another by inducements of one kind or another.

In today’s Jamaica, with the great majority of 12/13-year-old children sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), a high school education is automatic for most talented young athletes.

But now, if the stories are to be believed, this issue of inducements has gone to a whole new level. There is talk of large cash sums and gifts, such as appliances, handed over to parents in order for a targeted child to move from one school to another.

This newspaper is appalled by reports that, in some cases, the school of origin and the receiving school have had no contact on the matter at the administrative level. This, it seems to us, would be in clear breach of established rules for the transfer of students.

The much-publicised intervention by Education Minister Mr Ronnie Thwaites earlier this week is aimed at bringing an end to these unethical practices. It seems, too, that for the most part, the ministry’s intervention is meant only to formalise established rules and ensure the obedience of those rules. Indeed, it would seem that the plan for ISSA to establish “a clearing house by August 1, 2015 where all transferred student athletes must be approved/cleared before participation in ISSA activities” may be the only genuinely new factor.

From this newspaper’s perspective we are very pleased at Mr Thwaites’ affirmation of his recognition of the relevance of sport — which we are aware is among the fastest-growing niches in the global service industry.

Note his words: “The ministry is not against a parent wanting to place a child in a school that has a sports co-curricular programme that can enhance his career goals (or a school with a good music programme). However, we are insisting that this must not be done for monetary gain and to the detriment of the child’s education.”