Sachin Tendulkar has lauded the new policy of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) mandating daily sports period for students of Class IX to XII and urged the board to extend it to all the classes.
The board has formulated the new guidelines so as to prevent students from having a sedentary lifestyle and turning into couch potatoes.
"India is at number 3 when it comes to obesity and it is a matter of serious concern. A young, unfit and unhealthy India is a recipe for disaster. To be able to tackle this issue, we must build a strong sporting culture in our country," Tendulkar said in a letter to CBSE Chairman Anita Karwal.
"CBSE's decision to reserve one period every day for health and physical education is indeed a right move in that direction. However, there is certainly more that can be done with this initiative," he added.
He further said, "Since the overall objective of your initiative is preventing obesity among children, the board would also like to consider making health and fitness mandatory across all other classes as well."
The board has prepared a 150-page manual detailing sports guidelines for schools for Class IX to XII and methodologies for implementing them.
According to the new guidelines aimed at mainstreaming health and physical education, it will be mandatory for schools to have a "sports" period daily during which students will have to go the playground but will be free to perform any physical activity listed in the manual and will be graded on the same.
The board had in March asked all schools to reserve one period for "Health and Physical Education (HPE)" while preparing their time-table for the 2018-19 session. However, HPE will be different from Physical Education (PE) academic elective which is offered to Class X and XII students.
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