Importance of sports in schools

When we think of a school, many things come in our mind. It is expected once the child goes out to a school he will learn all the lessons of life and get prepared to face the challenges of life.We expect a child to develop not only mental and intellectual faculty, but also the physical faculty.What has been observed  in the recent years is that more emphasis has been on academic development and in the process physical aspect of the child`s growth has been unknowingly ignored.Though we keep reminding  that sound body has sound mind but this remains a statement only and is not  really practiced. In the past children had opportunities to play in the open areas/ground which were in plenty and that they had an easy access to play grounds because these were very close to their houses. Also there was not so much burden of academics on them hence they had time to make use of such grounds.The food habits were proper because not much of junk food was available to them. What has happened now is that the quality of food is not that good and the open space around has also diminished. The pressure of studies has increased many folds than what it was before. It has been observed that children do not have enough time to eat and take proper rest because after school hours they are supposed to attend the tuition/coaching class also.In some cases this has also been observed that a child  remains absent from the school but not from the other classes.The reason for this probably is that the parents think that taking part in extra curricular activities including  the games and sports, will tire the children and they will not be able devote maximum time towards  their studies.
The result is that you will find many children who are not physically fit. They may appear to be healthy but the truth is that if asked, many of them may not be able to run a distance of even half a kilometer.There are many schools which have wonderful and plenty of the facilities in respect of the games and sports but most of the children are not able to take advantage of such facilities due to different reasons. One of the reasons is ,as I mentioned above, the pressure of studies. The other reason is that many other activities are considered more important than the games and sports. Nowadays the children are found in extra classes of computers, art and craft and music etc, courtesy the advertisement and many programmes shown on TV in which parents see the future of their child. Games and sports do not get enough importance here also.
The CBSE has rightly advised the schools to ensure that children have the physical education period almost every day. This is a welcome step but the question is : should it  not be the policy of all the boards? Are the children studying in CBSE affiliated schools only to be given this privilege? I think it should be implemented in all the schools across the country. Though the schools are finding it difficult to adjust it in their daily time table but some encouraging solution has got to be found by them. One idea can be that the children are asked to come in the evening for games and sports activities and also some of them can come early in the morning before the regular school starts. There may be some problems initially but it would be great for our children , if we can attract them to sports activities. In this the schools should take initiative and the parents should support and extend all possible help to the schools. You may not see the positive results of this immediately but will certainly feel great when our children will prove to be better citizens of the country.
 It is the games field where the children learn  many lessons of life. Victory and defeat are the integral part of any sports activity and the children learn the lesson of success and  failure and take both equally well and do not loose heart even after the defeat or failure. They learn to work as a team which is so important in life.They learn to appreciate even the people who are in the opposition and playing against them. And most importantly they remain physically fit which help to become mentally strong also.
Hence the policy makers, schools and the parents should think alike to provide better future to our children by providing them better facilities of games and sports and also motivate them to make full use of that.