Students prioritise studies before sports

Students prioritise studies before sports

Being a teenager, I’d also admit that I, too, don’t spend 60 minutes a day doing physical activities (‘Teens as sedentary as 60-year-olds’, Gulf News, June 25). It is a matter of fear more than shame. In my case, it is studies that pull me out of sports and games. I know that if I am going to spend an hour playing during the evening, then I will be too tired to study for the rest of the day. Moreover, being a night learner, it will become a huge disadvantage, as I will lose on at least five hours of valuable study time. During my highly crucial high school years, I cannot forego my study time. Therefore, I purposefully avoid physical activities. I do understand the need for some fresh air and the vitality of exercise, but I am also aware of the ill effects that my inertia will cost me.

I feel that at this point in time, during one’s adolescence, nobody can force or push a teen into something that they have decided to ignore. Let me blame my age for it, but this attitude should be changed. Probably it is the lack of motivation and encouragement from the parents’ side that reveals such shocking statistics.

From Ms Parvathi Sreeraj

Dubai

Schools need to help!

I am a mother of two teenagers and my daughter is a very active and enthusiastic teenager, but due to a sedentary lifestyle, she is becoming inactive and lethargic. There is no encouragement from the school to commit to any physical activity. In her school timetable there is only one physical education period and hardly any engagement in other sports activities.

Being an average earning family, my husband cannot afford to enroll her in any sports activities outside due to its high cost. As parents, we take her cycling and make her do some exercises at home, which she sometimes feels bored to do. I feel that if all schools make a point to give importance to some physical exercise every day for at least 10 to 20 minutes and encourage every child to engage in some form of sports activity twice in a week, I am sure every child will be happy to participate in a group and their health will also improve.

From Ms Bindu Manoj

Dubai

More facilities needed

I am a 29-year-old man living in Dubai. I was born here, but I shifted to New Delhi, India for studies and then came back in 2004 and resumed my life back in Dubai. I tried so hard to gather people to play some sports, as I was active in different sports in school. But, for the last few weeks, I have managed to gather a few of my friends to join me in playing badminton in whatever place is available.

I personally believe that if the authorities can help by building more indoor play areas and encourage the schools to make these rather than having open grounds, I think that would do the trick.

Laziness and being a couch potato with an unhealthy diet are topics we neglect. I was one of these people. I weighed 90kg between the ages of 20 and 24 years old, then I reduced my weight before my marriage to 60kg in one year back in 2014. Now I am at a stable 75kg, but I still feel that the belly fat is a troublemaker for me in the long run.

I have been extremely active and also extremely lazy and fat in the recent past, so I know the importance and urgency of handling this issue. Schools, the authorities and parents should be more vigilant about their children’s personal activity attainments.

From Mr Amar Pathak

Dubai

Phones can increase activity

Nothing can be more timely than now considering vacation started for children. Fostering a sense of fitness is the responsibility of parents and guardians. Children prefer to be engaged and not simply told. It takes 21 days of continuous effort to make something into a habit, as per experts. Walking and swimming in the early hours, yoga, aerobics and indoor games are the best options to beat the heat. Schools may introduce fitness as a part of their curriculum and highlight the dangers due to poor side effects of obesity. There are good apps on fitness, which children may be asked to check. If children are hooked to gadgets, why don’t we put it to good use to communicate the right things?

From Mr K. Padmanabhan

Dubai

Controlling activity time

I request that the internet service providers in the UAE should help parents to control the Wi-Fi at home by ‘time’ and not by passwords. The ‘time control’ should be set by the service providers at the request of parents thereby eliminating daily 24 hours of Wi-Fi availability at home. Some children are constantly demanding for passwords from parents and being online and uncontrolled could be better managed this way. Passwords do not help.

From Mr Velmurugan

UAE

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