Sports in Education

EDUCATION TRENDS

Euclid Tayaotao

Filipinos had been fascinated with sports and their desire became more intense with the rising superstars in the field of sports. In boxing,the name Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao had already been plastered in the mind of every citizen as an icon hailed and respected for his insuperable prowess in the ring and that even a 3 year old kid can identify him when flashed on television. The world’s activity literally stops as Manny Pacquiao steps up in the ring for a fight as all attention is on his every move and superb knockout punch.

We are a sports minded country but are we ready to inculcate sports to our children? The Department of Education had in its curriculum the subject Physical Education merged with Health Education creating Health-optimizing Physical Education or H.O.P.E. The allotted time for Physical Education in Grades 1 to 6 is 40 mins. Per week, Grades 7 to 10 is 60 mins. Per week and Grades 11 to 12 is 120 minutes. A very limited time in a day to program development of sports in education as compared to other leading countries that provide ample time and supervision. Now the question is, is sports necessary in education?

Many studies and researches had been laid and identified by sports scientist on the impact of sports on the education and child development. UNICEF had identified a number of vital building block in the delivery of quality education. These include sport and the freedom to play in assenting with the right for gilt-edge development. Physical activities had been banded to shape health activity of every child. Sport-based programs had greatly suggested to have improved learning performance of school children for as tutored “a healthy body has a healthy mind.” 

Moral development are highlighted as one impact of sports with the matriculation of values such as sportsmanship, teamwork, honesty, respect and discipline. School attendance had also encouraged the young ones due to burning interest on sports. A study by Richard Stead and Dr. Mary Nevill showed a positive relationship between participation in sports programs and school attendance and between physical fitness and school attendance. Character building and leadership takes ground on sports involvement. Young as they are the kids are molded into their social and emotional development. When encouraged through sports, the young people are much more active in the community. Their leadership and community involvement are much higher as the role of sport has shown to strongly interconnect structure social unity.

With the identification and establishment of the benefits of sports on education and child advancement, stumbling block hinders the full enforcement of sport as a crucial constituent of child development. Factors such as time allotted to sports activities, skills and talents of school teachers handling physical education and trainings provided to staffs for sports development greatly modify the outcome of holistic quality education.