By

Osas Calvin Otabor

Sports can play a big role in education. Every student should be involved; I believe that sports are an end in itself, and that involvement in sports teaches lessons that enhance education.

Sports positively impact academic achievement. Studies show students in sport spend more time on homework, get better grades, and perform higher on standardized testing, compared to non-sport students.

Sports also encourage children to learn things like teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership, all while making new friends. This will shape their character in a way that’ll stick with them for the rest of their lives. Sports activities and interests provide many positive opportunities for children; however, they can also cause some problems. Many parents believe that participation in sports will enhance their children’s achievement. Whether they help or distract from achievement depends on the extent of children’s involvement and the type of experience they have.

Sportsmanship provides guidelines that can be generalized to classroom and lifelong achievement. Sports contests teach children to love classroom challenges, it also teaches children to function in a competitive society. Sports and physical education are fundamental to the early development of children and the skills learned during play. Through participation in sport and physical education, children learn about the importance of honesty, teamwork, fair play, friendship, discipline and respect for themselves and others.

It also provides a forum for children to learn how to deal with competition and how to cope with both winning and losing. These learning aspects highlight the impact of physical education and sports on a child’s social and moral development, in addition to physical skills and abilities.

In terms of physical and health aspects of a child’s development, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that focuses on the mostly positive effects of sport and exercise on physical health, growth and development.

Sports and physical education also help to build a child’s health activity habits, habits that encourage lifelong participation in physical activity. Sport is a really attractive activity for children and is often used as a drawcard to recruit children’s health and education programs. It can be a project that focuses on educational outcomes and can also be used as a means to deliver educational messages to children in some cases.

Additionally, sport programs in school aim to promote and develop other aspect of education such as school attendance.

In conclusion we can say sports is a magnet to education.