VIJAYAWADA: Senior sports administrator K.P. Rao on Thursday said that Andhra Pradesh Government’s decision to merge sports and youth under one department, as per suggestions of made by officials of the youth department, will not augur well for sports and games.
He said world over in several developed countries sports and education were brought under one umbrella. “Sports is part and parcel of education. It will be good to have sports and education together. We can utilize the Central Government funds through Human Resource Ministry for the development of sports infrastructure under Sarva Siksha Abhayan,” he said.
He said as physical fitness was imperative for a long successful life in sports, inclusion of sports in primary education will help create a healthy society. “The students can develop sportsman spirit early in their life”.
He said youth services was meant for teenagers possessing not-so-flexible bodies. “Youth clubs, mostly in the country, are meant for recreational purposes and lacked seriousness in pursuing of sports and games”.
Emphasising the importance of skill development at school level, Mr. Rao felt that the State Government should be pro-active in introducing skilled development training such as a/c mechanism, electrical, plumbing, welding, tailoring, dying and beauty parlour from Class VIII itself in schools. “By encouraging self employment skills, the burden on the government to provide jobs will reduce. It (the government) can also silence the opposition’s criticism,” he added.
Mr. Rao felt the need for a debate involving the stakeholders like, professors, professional sports personalities, educationalists, doctors and others from sports, youth and education departments to discuss the merits of the merger of sports and education.
