Parents urged to encourage their children to participate in school sports

Parents urged to encourage their children to participate in school sports

Chitambo, June 19^TH, 2014, ZANIS — TEACHERS at Chitambo Primary School have advised  parents to desist from stop their children from participating in the school’s sports activities.

School Sports Coordinator Kelvin Mutengo says it is saddening that most parents in the district tend to discourage their children to attend sports activities  at the school for fear of disturbing the child’s class performance.

“Parents say sports disturb the child’s performance at school so they would rather restrict them from attending any sports activities at the school,” he said.

ZANIS sports reports that the School Sports Coordinator said this in an interview at the School in Chitambo District, today.

He said many children have talents in various sports disciplines which can help them in future because some pupils do not perform well in class but excel greatly in sports and have travelled the world.

“Some children do not perform well in class but when you take them to the playing field they really excel.

“  Sports can contribute greatly to a child’s future and they can even travel the world and go to places their parents have never been,” he said.

Mr. Mutengo said some pupils have been selected to represent the school at Zone and District levels but their parents have not allowed them to participate which has ended up disappointing the school.

He explained that children can learn leadership, team-building and communication skills that will help them in school, their future career and personal relationships adding that participation in sports has a positive impact on a child’s self-esteem and confidence.

And senior teacher for grade one pupils Goodson Chisenga has advised parents with grade one pupils at the school to never allow them to miss classes as they will miss out on a lot of things.

Mr. Chisenga says since governments’ introduction of the Primary Literacy Programme (PLP), children are not supposed to miss classes because at the end of grade one, all pupils are supposed to have learnt how to read.

“Government is really serious about the PLP programme that is why children should not miss classes because when they miss a day, they miss out on a number of lessons,” he said.

Mr. Chisenga said parents and teachers should work together to achieve one goal of ensuring that children learn to read their mother tongue at a tender age and support governments programme.