Gone are the days when the slot marked Physical Education in school timetables were there just to fill the space. Now schools across the state have started to realise that physical fitness of their students is just as important as their academic record.
A handful of schools across the state have even resorted to ‘outsourcing’ their PT periods to companies in a bid to ensure their students excel, not only intellectually, but physically as well.
EduSports is a Bangalore-based company that partners with schools and takes over the physical education training for students. They have devised an effective physical education curriculum and provide schools with the personnel and facilities to administer them. EduSports is currently associated with more than 200 schools across the country and their first foray into the state have seen them tie up with four schools.
“Our modus operandi is that schools outsource their PT periods to us and we send our staff over to them to train their students. Ours is a structured syllabus that covers every aspect of physical education. And schools across the country have been receptive of our concept. We currently partner with more than 200 schools across the country and service around 1.6 lakh students in the process,” says Saumil Majmudar, who is the founder and CEO of EduSports.
He claims that his organisation’s efforts have succeeded in tangibly improving the physical fitness levels of students in the schools that they have partnered with. “We try measure the physical fitness of the students using various parameters. We measure their aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, sprinting ability, Body Mass Index, upper body strength and lower body strength and try to ascertain their physical fitness via these parameters.
And an analysis of the physical fitness of the students who study in the schools that have partnered with us, show that they are fitter and stronger by at least 7-10 percent,” he says.
Of the four schools that have outsourced their physical education classes to EduSports, Sadbhavana World School remains the only one in Kozhikode. And its principal Reema Muralidhar is happy with the results of the programme, since roping in EduSports in January.
“The programme uses a structured curriculum with lesson plans for the Physical Education period and uses age appropriate props to develop motor skills. It teaches the basics of all major games like football, basketball, volleyball and cricket and ensures that no child is left behind,” she says.