Modi Govt Initiates To Bring Out Next Olympians From School? Know How

India capped off their best performance in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics with a haul of seven medals. After claiming victories in their respective fields, relatively unknown athletes turned into national icons overnight. With the next Olympics event in Paris only three years away, the challenge of performing better and raising a new record is undoubtedly there.

For this, the Centre is working on the modalities to inculcate the sports culture among the youth from the schools itself. It is planning to make sports a part of the curriculum in schools across the country. Apart from hiring sports teachers with good remunerations, the students will also be trained by professional athletes. The government plans to pick chilren out of school based on their merits and later assist them to train for international athletics events such as the Olympics, besides continuing their traditional education, News18 reported.

Sports To Be An Aspect Of Curriculum

According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the suggestions are amongst the integration of sports with academics. As part of this policy, sports education will be an essential aspect of the school curriculum. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about it during his Independence Day speech recently after congratulating the winners of the Tokyo Olympics from the ramparts of Red Fort. He announced that sports will be given its due importance and will be included in the school curriculum.

Addressing the nation on 75th Independence Day, Modi said that the Indian athletes have not only won people's hearts, but have inspired the future generations too. "They have done something that will inspire generations to come," he said.

The Ministry of Education is working on procedures on how to integrate the two sides of education. According to Moneycontrol, the ministry will bring out the detailed guidelines on this within three months. This would not only change how the sports is considered in Indian schools and approach towards it but will also be a source of employment for a number of sports trainers.

"The school and their sports teachers will play a double role. One will be to gauge the students' interest in sports and groom them in terms of talent. The other will be to assist in selecting future athletes for regular training at external locations," a government official said. So, the aim of the policy is not only to focus on the interest of students only, but to impart practical training as well.

Dedicated Number Of Hours To Sports

As per the policy, a certain number of hours will be dedicated to only sports activities every week. Students will be given a choice to get the hang of any sport or build stamina and wellbeing. Based on a case to case basis, what a particular student would gain from the sports period will then be decided.

Depending on their skill set, the school teachers will take the actions accordingly. For example, if a student has an interest towards athletics or outdoor sports which does not need infrastructure or equipments, they could be referred to a nearby school for using their training ground. To ensure all schools have the required equipment and infrastructure to support sports culture, the government will allow crowdfunding by schools.

Training To Be Given By Professionals

The administration will also make sure to include a network of trained and medal-winning athletes. These professionals could give training to school kids, depending on their time.

In an interaction with PM Modi, the two-time Olympian medallist and India's star shuttler, PV Sindhu also opened up about her plans to open a sports academy and a school in Visakhapatnam. Expressing her desire, the ace shuttler said that many youth are lagging behind in schools and training due to lack of proper encouragement.

"I was thinking of setting up an academy and sports school in Vizag, but currently, I'm playing. I'll do it after that. My father will be looking at the academy side," Sindhu said in the video.

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