Need sports in school curriculum: Sportspersons at GES

Hyderabad: Memorising and reproducing the facts has become a norm in the education system. While sportspersons said they could succeed as their schools supported sports, education experts emphasised on giving free hand to kids in deciding what they want to do, at the GES-2017.

Sports personalities like Sania Mirza, Mithali Raj, Pullela Gopichand, Harsha Bhogle and Chatri Sityodtong participated in the event and shared their views on promoting sports in the country. 

They stressed on the need to develop sports infrastructure in the country which will give more opportunities for women to pursue games. The sports personalities noted that when everything is setup for girls, they tend to embrace sports. 

Ace tennis player Sania Mirza said that there are many entries coming up at junior tennis events and added, “While wrapping it in the golden wrapper of a film might help, we need to love sport for India to become a sporting nation.”

Likewise, Indian badminton coach Gopichand noted that people are looking at organised games more and emphasised the need to encourage local talent. Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar who was a panellist at the session on schools and tooling, said, “There are days when you are not going to win. Making sports part of the curriculum gives a student an idea how to deal with losses.”

 He also stated that most of the sportspersons have gone to the Universities because of which they are able apply their mind in a more scientific way. "An educated sportsperson is better sportsperson," he added.

Mukul Kanitkar, national organising secretary of the Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM), said, "It is a 360 degree approach to learning and not just memorising. Arts, sports, self-sufficiency have to be imparted to every student."

All sportspersons emphasised on need to include sports in curriculum.