The Importance of Sports and Physical Education in School
“All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy” This proverb cannot be emphasized enough. Academics and physical education have always been two sides of the same coin. A child is raised on an overall level only when he has a sound mind in a sound body. The impact of sports on academics is tremendous.
Sports and Mental Health
Apart from the academic performances, sports transforms a student on a personal level. Leadership qualities, team spirit and perseverance are all mastered through sports. Besides building physical stamina of the students, sports inevitably inculcates patterns of discipline, determination, will power and obedience. Cognitive abilities in children are proven to have been increased due to regular physical activities. Rationale, decisiveness and the overall mental development of the students have shown to be improved due to sports. Researchers have linked sports with the overall development of a child. Physical activities release endorphins, oxytocin and dopamine, known as the ‘happy hormones’, thereby positively influencing a child’s mind. Not just mood upliftment, but sports equips a student to respond to defeats in a healthy and sportive manner. This again is carried by the students throughout their lives.
Sports and the Self
Physical education has also proven to escalate the levels of self esteem and confidence amongst students. This directly defeats insecurities and self image issues, thereby contributing to the child’s mental health. Expertise and confidence in one area, automatically radiates into others’. Therefore, a seasoned athlete/sportsperson transmits confidence into all aspects of life, creating a healthy social image and an assertive personality. This also motivates the students to excel in their academics too.
Physical education and sports have also proven to be an outlet to vent out any negative emotions harbouring in a student’s mind and since hormones that elevate mood patterns are increased, there are significantly less chances of mental disturbances and disorders.
CBSE and Sports
The CBSE board acknowledges the various benefits of physical education and sports and therefore it has included sports as a mandatory hour in their curriculum. CBSE has special provision with respect to classes 10 and 12 to attempt their board exams at a subsequent date if the students are representing the country in international sporting events. The CBSE board aims to make students all-rounders, inculcate team management skills and to make students mentally strong and emotionally balanced. It also encourages a healthy competition and sportsmanship.
The CBSE Board has a continuous and a comprehensive method of evaluation for classes 6 to 8, where it considers the performance of students in any two of activities between Swimming, Gymnastics, Scouting and Guiding, Yoga and so on. Besides this, other sports included by the CBSE board are Aerobics, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Chess and many more such sports and games, and holds tournaments periodically.
To encourage students to participate in sports, the CBSE board introduced the Chacha Nehru Sports Award for students who excel in sports and games. The objective of this Award is to identify, nurture and develop the skills of athletics and sports.
NPS Varthur ensures that equal emphasis is laid on academics and sports. Therefore, activities such as football, basketball, taekwondo, skating, archery, yoga and meditation are included in the curriculum. Apart from this, music, art and dance are core components of TGIS’ curriculum. It encourages a wide range of Extra Curricular activities which are facilitated by talented coaches and expert-support and the in house club activities promote holistic development of the children. For the students in pre-primary years, we have a specially designed play area created with a sand pit and a Play-Gym.
Therefore, in essence, it is time and again proven that children dabbling in sports and academics are better focused in terms of discipline, concentration and time management learnt through sports.
