Saturday March 13, 2010

Not a practical idea

THE Education Ministry has announced that sports activities will be made compulsory in all schools starting next year and each student will be required to select a game.

Assuredly, there are merits in promoting sports activities and a sports culture in schools.

But has sufficient thought been given to the practicality of making it compulsory for every student to select a game?

Consider a normal secondary school with 2,000 students.

If this school has facilities, equipment and coaches for 10 games, we are talking about 200 students taking part in one game on the average.

Now, take badminton as an example.

If you have two pairs playing doubles in a court and another two pairs taking turns during any training session, you will need 25 courts for all players.

Even if you have five sessions, you still need five courts.

How many normal schools have that many badminton courts? One training session a week is no way to produce champions!

What about football, with 22 players on the field during a game?

If each team has 20 players, there will be five teams. If all are to train at the same time, two fields are not enough.

If training is on different days, you will still need a field.

How many schools have a proper football field?

Making it compulsory for students to select a game is not new.

Years ago, the ministry made it compulsory for every student to select a game, join an academic society and be a member of a uniformed body.

Schools complied but only on paper.

Most students registered three activities and that was about all that had happened as most schools had neither the facility nor the ability to cope.

The idea of compulsory mass participation was simply not practical.

Let the schools decide on what games they can have based on the resources available.

Let students who are inclined and have potential make their own choice.

Making it compulsory for every student to select a game is neither beneficial to the students nor practical.

Compulsory mass participation is not the way to produce champions.

Sports champions, like all other endeavours, are made of the better endowed, or even the elite few.

If the objective is to promote a sports culture through mass participation in sports activities, consider other methods.

First, we should consider requiring all schools to seriously carry out “taking standards” in sports.

The sets of “standards” required are already established in the Physical and Health Education syllabus.

Every student is required, according to his age group, to achieve certain predetermined standards in some basic sports activities and agility like long jump, high jump, discus throwing, long distance and short distance runs.

For the more athletic inclined, this can be a breeze.

For the less sports endowed, they need to practise to achieve the required standards.

The important thing is students are taught and exposed to what constitutes basic sports agility which is important in life.

The once-popular school cross-country runs should be revived.

As each student has a different ability, different routes can be designed to cater for different groups.

But every student should learn to run a cross-country race.

It entails both physical as well as character development and will also help students to discard a sedentary lifestyle later in life.

LIONG KAM CHONG,

Seremban.

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