|
A sporting chance
EduSports brings playtime back into fashion
as it encourages educational institutions, parents and corporates
to recognise the importance of sports in children’s lives.
Pankaja Srinivasan reports
Photos: S.Siva Saravanan & V. Sreenivasa
Murthy
A Game plan
Ms O’Connor was our PT teacher, and we did not love her.
Because, she made us jog five rounds of the sports grounds and
would not suffer any excuse. Heat, cold, rains, cramps, exam time,
birthdays…she didn’t care. If it was the games period,
we had to be out there and playing. Any one who malingered, had
to run two extra rounds. And, no teacher dared ask her to let
them have her period to complete their syllabus! It has been 30
years since I have thought of my PT teacher. But, her memory cropped
up at the recently held seminar organised by EduSports, that brought
home the fact that there was a crying need for more Ms O’Connors
in schools today.
(Saumil Majmudar and Meer Waqiruddin Khaleeq, co-founders
EduSports)
Simply play
EduSports has a simple agenda — to create a system where
a maximum number of children are introduced to the magic of sports.
Saumil Majmudar and Meer Waqiruddin Khaleeq its founder members
say the need to play in kids is visceral. “Kids want to
play. So, why not tap into that natural instinct of children and
get the best out of it.” Unfortunately, play time has shrunk
alarmingly over the years, and in many schools, it doesn’t
figure at all in the overall scheme of things.
 Take
the games period in question:
Do your kids crib about their games period being hijacked by
teachers of other subjects?
Do you crib if the children want to go out to play before an
exam?
Do you as a school disallow children from participating in sporting
events during school hours?
Do you as a teacher refuse permission to children to appear for
their tests on another day in case they need to miss school in
order to take part in a sporting event?
If your answer to the above is ‘yes’, then read on.
Studies reveal some hard-hitting statistics. In a survey conducted
in a particular area, it showed that 35 per cent of school children
studying in classes eight to 11 are drug and alcohol addicts.
And, the incidence of young people committing suicide is shockingly
high. Why? Only because they are not properly engaged in healthy
alternatives like sports and games.
Says Saumil, “Setting goals, fostering team spirit, developing
self-esteem, teaching kids to resolve disputes and allowing them
to experience the highs of victories, and the disappointments
of losses, prepares them for life. Sports can create champions
in life,” ” he says. Somewhere along the way educational
institutions and parents have lost sight of this. PT teachers
are not taken seriously at all. They are reduced to just wielding
the baton to ensure the children stand in straight lines during
assembly. “That has to change. PT teachers are as important
as the subject teachers”, says Saumil.
EduSports offers its help to schools to set up a game plan, literally.
It draws up a schedule, constructs a syllabus and helps the school’s
games teacher to adhere to it and implement it. It also offers
the ‘after-school-hours’ play time. Kids are encouraged
to stay back after school for an hour of supervised games. “It
ensures the children are in a safe environment and a familiar
one, and that they are having fun too,” adds Meer.
Corporate help
EduSports has many ideas — simple and workable. One of
them involves Corporate Social Responsibility. “There are
only so many trees you can plant,” smiles Saumil. Instead,
Corporates can adopt playgrounds, unutilised public spaces, provide
infrastructure or even help implement sports programmes in government
or corporation schools. "It is not all altruistic, there
can be great returns from such programmes,” says Saumil.
They give the example of Barclays Spaces for Sports. Barclays
has invested millions to create sustainable sports facilities
in communities across the UK. It has identified and reclaimed
and restored disused areas and provided sports kits to enable
local communities to use the areas as playing fields. Many, many
children from underprivileged backgrounds this way have access
to sports and sporting facilities across the country. It is so
easy to do the same here. To know more, call 09901442607/099018-46731
Or email: meer@edusports.in, or visit www.edusports.in
EDUSPORTS
- Partners with schools to create and manage the entire sports
and physical education curriculum
- Consult and design sports infrastructure as needed
- Manage existing sports infrastructure to enable revenue generation
- Recruits, trains and monitors sports coaches in schools
- Works with Corporates to help set up sports programmes in
their cities
|
