A sport for every child to build a healthy nation

He increase in the number of overweight children in our society, may be a direct result of us not paying attention to their daily diet and to their physical activity. TV and computer games have replaced children’s playtime. Today, they play Football in th

Sanjeewani Wanasinghe (Former Sri Lanka Netball player)

I am a person with a good sports background. I represented the Sri Lanka Netball Team in 1996. My husband is a Cricketer who has also played Rugby. My son currently represents Royal College at Rugby. My daughter plays Netball and Badminton at Visakha Vidyalaya. My two children are still under 17 years of age. The concept to have one sport for each student is a very good move by the Education Ministry. Every student should be able to engage in sports activities. Those who do not compete in any sports are in danger of being discriminated by society. A sportsperson has many ideas to share, which will also help him/her to improve in his/ her daily activities. Involvement in sports enables time management, and has the potential to move forward according to a plan. I think, parents should also provide as much encouragement to make this a reality. There is a belief among parents that involvement in sports could affect a students’ education. This is a completely false belief among parents. Those who believe in this misconception are those without a proper vision in their careers. But those with a perfect vision are able to balance sports and education well and succeed in their careers. My experience is that, most parents today, encourage their children in their education more than in sports. These parents are determined to see their children reach the top in their chosen careers. They are not allowed to participate in sports, even for a short period. However, there are some parents, mainly the elite class in Colombo, who are keen to see their children take part in Cricket and Rugby.

These parents are more interested in visiting playgrounds to see their children participate in sports more than their education. Their target is to make their children another ‘Kumar Sangakkara’ or a ‘Mahela Jayawardena’, even though their children do not have the talent for serious sports. As a result, we can see some parents are more towards education, while others are more towards sports. They are completely unaware that both sports and education should be balanced and given equal priority.

The Education system is also tough, with more activities based on exams. Earlier, only a few stu- dents had the luxury of coming to school in their own vehicle and many did not mind taking the long walk to school. But today, we see many students come to school in a van, three-wheeler or on a motorcycle, to allocate their valuable time for tuition. As a result, even the students in Colombo and those in rural areas do not have the time to get involved in physical activities. This is the reason why we see many students suffer from malnutrition. The 'one sport for every student' concept will help students become healthy persons, and to work in a good frame of mind. I can remember the Education Minister proposed this concept two years ago. But it turned out to be a failure from its inception. As parents, I still doubt whether this initiative could be made a reality. Even if this programme is possible among the top schools in Colombo, it will be a tough ask for rural schools, due to the lack of facilities. I think, eventually, what would take place is that, Colombo schools would succeed in both education and sports, while outstation schools will struggle in both departments.

Sunil Jayaweera (Special Consultant, Sports - Ministry of Education)

There are over 7,000 Secondary Schools in Sri Lanka, with 2 million students in attendance. Of this, 20% overeat, while over 15% suffer from malnutrition, according to a recent Education Ministry survey.

In addition, the rest of the students are victims of non communicable diseases. Hence, this survey indicates that over 50% of this country's student population is undergoing some difficulties, for which the main cause is the lack of regular physical activity.

Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has proposed a 5-year special project from 2017, to overcome this crisis. As per this project, every student needs to participate in at least one sport. The Ministry intends to evaluate the physical condition of every student, twice a year, from next year. In addition, points will be added to the student’s report books on the performance of his sports activities. As a result, his position in class and promotions will be also be based on his performances in sports.

With this project, our main idea is to encourage students to do sports, as well as to improve their education. In fact, this project was initially inaugurated two years ago, but was not successful as it was not monitored in properly. However, this time we will monitor the programme strictly and hope to establish a sports pool for each school. We will then expand these sports pools to education divisions, zones, districts and provincials. Hence, the Education Ministry will be able to identify and train talented athletes who could represent the country. With students competing in at least one sport, we will be able to eradicate malnutrition and overeating among students. We are also hoping to recruit school Sports Inspectors to monitor this programme. We need at least two or three Physical Training Instructors (PTI) per school. But, unfortunately, we have only about 4,000 PTIs in the country.

The Education Minister also intends to recruit 5,000 PTIs from next year. The last batch of PTIs was recruited between 1984 and 1994. Those between 20-35 years, with 6 Passes including 4 Credits at the GCE Ordinary Level (O/L), are eligible to apply for the post of PTI. Those who have failed in Maths could also apply, with an assurance they would get through the subject in due course. We have many National level coaches and athletes who cannot come forward due to shortcomings in their GCE O/L results. But, we have given these athletes another chance to serve the country by providing them with this facility. In addition, we have over 150 PTI teachers coming out every year from the College of Educations. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the PTI cadre and the coaching dept in schools. In the past, standard of sports in many schools dropped drastically due to negligence of their extracurricular activities. We hope to educate all heads of schools in the county with this project, and already had discussions with over 400 of them.