Students’ fitness monitor: Govt to introduce sports report cards

With sports activities made compulsory in all government and government-aided schools recently, each student will receive a sports report card, based on performance. The card, titled ‘Physical Fitness and Sports Aptitude Report Card’ will have all information regarding the student’s performance, including marks secured.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that more than 60 lakh students from primary to higher secondary level will get sports report cards. This will help parents know their children’s physical fitness. Explaining about the initiative, the official said that more than 10 games including cricket, hockey, football, cycling, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, badminton, have been introduced so kids can choose as per their prowess. “In addition, individual events such as athletics, swimming, rowing, weightlifting (only for seniors) and marathon run will also be introduced as per infrastructure of the institutions,” he added.

Stating that after choosing the game of their interest, physical instructors will mark students over motor qualities like speed, endurance and explosive power, the official said, if a student scores more than five in any two qualities, he or she mayhave the potential to excel in team or individual games. He said the report cards will carry timings and performance data of the students and based on that, teachers and parents could find out whether their children need to improvephysical fitness.

Pointing out that Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu will be the nodal agency in monitoring the sports activities, the official said, based on the report card, students will be given opportunities to participate in zonal, inter-state, regional and even in national level sports. “We are also working on a special diet for the best performing students,” he said, adding, “individual sports kits will also be distributed to those students.”