Should school athletes be paid? (They work hard so why not?)

Many people say that some of these guys already get scholarships, so that’s more than enough, no need to be greedy. Fine, let’s not be greedy and look at how much a scholarship is actually worth. On average, university tuition in a public university is about $1000 a year. That’s $4000 over the course of four years. This is a guy who is going to play football all evening and be exhausted by 8pm, so that means nothing he reads after that is going to stick in his head. He has to get up extremely early to make up for the time lost and then suffer paying attention in class, fighting the urge to fall asleep. Being a school athlete takes a lot more than skill and love for the game. It literally involves every aspect of your life including your diet, sleeping schedule, vacations, friends, and fitness. Literally everything. It gives you life lessons of discipline, time management, responsibility, and sportsmanship that only athletes will understand. Not everyone is privileged to have parents that can give them a little extra something. This same guy has to starve during break time when everyone else is pulling out something to eat from their lunch boxes. Sooner or later, this is the question they will ask themselves, “What am I doing struggling in school yet I could play football/basketball for some club and get paid well?” The student starts to have a hard time in school, not because he is ‘slow’ but rather because balancing the two isn’t easy. Paying these athletes makes them feel appreciated; they won’t have second thoughts on continuing with school while pursuing their dream. We continue to talk about people following their passion and making a living through that. Well, paying them is the first step to showing them that they can make it in the harsh world out there without necessarily doing something class related. It’s no secret how many athletes are making millions all over the world. Actually let me put it this way, in developed countries, they are making more than professional doctors and engineers and that same spirit is spilling into Africa with this tremendous growing love for sports. They need to be motivated and a little package is precisely how to do that. I’m not saying we should be paying athletes 1 million francs per term. If each athlete got Rwf 50,000 paid over the course of the term, this would give them some spending cash and an opportunity to start managing their money.