NEP 2020: Sports to be soon made part of school education curriculum

It is good news for school-going sports enthusiasts. As part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation, sports education will soon be made part of school curriculum.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the education ministry will bring out detailed guidelines in three months.

“There will be a dual role of the school and their sports teachers. One will be to gauge the interest of the students in sports and hone their talent. The other will be to help select future athletes for proper training at external locations," a government official said.

NEP 2020 aims to bring out a system of holistic education. Currently, sports is considered an extra-curricular activity in schools and activities either happen once or twice a week or after academic hours.

Under the new system, sports will become a part-and-parcel of the school education system. The sports curriculum will be designed, depending on the infrastructure in the school campus,

In his address to the nation during the 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the need to have sports education in schools.

"You will soon see policy changes that make sports an integral part of school education," added PM Modi.

What will be the changes?

In a given academic week, there will be a number of hours set aside for sports. Each student would be able to give their preferences, depending on their interests and aptitude.

However, this will be different in each school, depending on the facilities available. And the sports teachers in the school could take further action depending on the skill sets of the students.

For instance, a student wanting to pursue athletics or track sports in a school without the facilities could be referred to a neighbourhood school (for using their training ground).

At a later stage, crowdfunding for development of sports infrastructure in schools would also be encouraged. Here, the alumni network would be tapped.

To improve the quality of sports training, the services of retired athletes would also be taken up.

“Schools will be nudged to have an attractive remuneration package for these sports staff, so that students get top quality training," added another government official.

Sources also said that similar to quality benchmarks for the teaching staff, there would be qualification standards for the sports staff.

A network of trained and medal-winning athletes would also be made available and these professionals could give training to school students, depending on their time.