The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Physical fitness survey next month

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Sunday, Jun 08, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Physical fitness survey next month

Sangeeth Kurian

For students from class V to XII

Joint venture between Sports Council and SCERT
Bid to incorporate sports and health in curriculum

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A survey aimed at assessing the physical fitness of children in schools across the State will begin next month.

The survey, a joint venture of the Kerala Sports Council and the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), will be conducted among students from class V to XII and will be the first step towards incorporating sports and health as a component of the school curriculum.

Classification

Based on the survey, students will be classified into various scales according to the level of their fitness and provided age and class appropriate exercises to improve their overall health, said T.P. Dasan, president, Kerala Sports Council.

For instance children with fitness above 90 per cent will be grouped under the category ‘A’.

The remaining grades are: ‘B’ (children with fitness above 80 per cent), ‘C’ (those between 65-70 per cent fitness) and ‘D’ (children below 50 per cent fitness).

A syllabus on the proposed topic of sports and health was submitted by the council president to Education Minister M.A. Baby here on Friday.

“The implementation of the syllabus now rests in the hands of the curriculum committee,” said Mr. Dasan.

The proposed syllabus complete with examination for students from class VIII to XII is an attempt to inculcate the significance of physical fitness from class I onwards.

“Our youngsters are increasingly becoming victims to several life-style diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure even before they reach the age of 30,” said Mr. Dasan.

“Moreover, if we can conduct examination for information technology, why not sports?” he asked.

He said sports and health should be taught with the same seriousness as other subjects.

“We have recommended that the topics be taught to children from class I to IV on all working days,” Mr. Dasan said.

M.A. Khader, director, SCERT, said the programme would have a multi-dimensional and inclusive approach when it came to imparting the necessary skills in students. “We would focus on integrating the programme with some of the regular subjects taught in schools,” he said.

Some of the concepts in physics such as velocity, acceleration and force could be taught well using cricket, he said.

Similarly, the measurements of a football stadium could be applied in learning mathematics, he said.

The proposed programme, modelled on the lines of NCERT’s sports and health module, is introduced under the National Curriculum Framework 2005, a project that aims at strengthening the decentralisation processes in curriculum in respective States.

A total of Rs.10 lakh has been allocated for each State as a part of the framework.

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