B'lore schools taking to sports training in a big way

An increasing number of schools in City are implementing a structured specialised sports training as part of their curriculum.

More than 30 schools such as Delhi Public School East, Whitefield, Sri Kumaran’s Public School, Heritage Academy, St Joseph’s School, Carmel Convent, Serra International, Cambridge Public School, Edify School, India International School, KLE International School, Shishu Graha Montessori and High School and Kidzee currently have special physical programmes as part of their curriculum.

Gone are days when physical training was left only to the physical education teacher, popularly known as PT master. Kiran Sharma, principal of BRS School, feels that the new academic addition has shown a lot of improvement in students right from Montessori to Standard X. “This skill-based training has helped children improve in all subjects and help primary students differentiate between topics as well as not to neglect their need to take physical education seriously,” she said.

Physical education (PE) coaches give age-appropriate challenges following a curriculum mapped for developmental needs of children. Teachers are also expected to participate and treat sports/physical education programmes like any academic subject and trained for imparting them.

 A number of tools to monitor coverage and effectiveness of the programme, record its impact and capture feedback are also in place to make education more holistic.

 “Parents along with students are able to relate to the course being taught,” said a faculty member from Bangalore International School. Principal of Prasiddhi School, Rubina, was of the view that her students did not find the new addition to the curriculum burdensome and on the contrary enjoyed it. “Even parents participate and are given orientation on the course,” she added.

“Besides the needs of particular students according to their age, the curriculum is based on the knowledge of ‘what is to be taught’ by teachers and ‘how it should be taught’, which is more important, but is generally ignored,” said Parmindar Gill of EduSports.

A study by National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation found that overweight children between 14 years and 17 years in urban India increased from 24.2 per cent in 2006 to 25.2 per cent and obesity increased from 9.8 per cent to 11.7 per cent in 2009. It also pointed out that the popularity of virtual gaming and television obsession have led to obesity and lethargy reaching alarming levels. Bangalore, at present, has one of the highest number of schools opting for physical education programme, according to Edusports.

Having  periods with well-defined activities, making physical education as robust as mathematics and science, including physical education as ‘integral’ part of curriculum, evaluating students’ performance in physical education on a par with academics and making promotion to a higher classes only if students attain minimum marks in sports are a few things such programmes will be working on.

“A number of students find it very difficult in the beginning to participate in the training. The results of the efforts can be seen only after a period of continued efforts,” said Sidhesh, principal of Ashok International School.