Re-engineering sports in schools
KHAIRY Jamaluddin, our Youth and Sports Minister, wants to transform
our country into a sporting nation – he has a daunting task to achieve
with many challenges along the path of success.
First and
foremost, how much time is allocated to physical education in schools?
With more children reportedly facing obesity, we wouldn’t even get to
the starting block.
Also, our children are too engrossed with
computer games and our fields are being hijacked for commercial
development, making our children lazier. Let’s not forget too the
unhealthy fast food eating culture.
Physical education classes are irregular in schools and disorganised. PE teachers lack the knowledge in sports science or health science.
Most
teachers lack the capability to assess a potential athlete as they
cannot even explain the percentage of fast and slow twitch muscle fibres
and other aspects related to athletic performance such as physiology,
physical ability, technical proficiency and psychological predisposition
to performance.
Based on feedback, students are just given a
ball to kick around without being given much guidance on ball skills. In
many cases, students just laze around the field without proper attire.
The
main focus of schools, teachers and parents seems to be for students to
score the maximum number of “A’s” in the exams, with sports ranking low
in priority among the stakeholders.
The million-dollar question
now is how are we going to create a sports culture in schools and sell
the idea to parents that sports offers great career progression?
Parents
have seen that sports does not pay in the long run, except in a few
cases like Datuk Nicol David (squash), Datuk Lee Chong Wei (badminton)
and Pandelela Rinong (diving) who are positive role models.
There
must be a firm commitment from the Government to prioritise school
sports, facilities and space for competitive sports and play.
Khairy,
our No.1 sports fan must work closely with the relevant stakeholders to
promote a strong sports culture among our youths.
C. SATHASIVAM SITHERAVELLU Seremban
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Showing posts with label Youth and Sports Minister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Youth and Sports Minister. Show all posts
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Malaysia needs re-engineering sports, not computer games, junk foods....
Labels:
Brain,
Computer games,
Exercise,
Health,
Junk foods,
Malaysia,
Physical education,
Schools,
Sports,
Youth and Sports Minister
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