ನಾಲ್ಕನೇ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ, ಸಂಚಿಕೆ 2 - : ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸರ್ವತೋಮುಖ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ದೈಹಿಕ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಅತ್ಯಗತ್ಯ(Season 4, Episode 2 : Physical Education is important for a child's overall development)

Please welcome Mr. Raghavan in this episode of ‘Prathibimba’ – By Teachers, For teachers!

Mr. Raghavan is an M. Phil degree holder in Physical Education and also has done NIS programme in Kabaddi. He has represented the Mysore University Kabaddi team at the National level, five times! He has also represented Karnataka State twice. However, he had to scale down when he joined a school in 1994. But it has opened his eyes to the challenges of sports activities at the school level.

He thinks there is no sports culture in India. But he has been working towards creating one ever since, right from the grassroots level. Earlier he was in a co-ed school and the students or the general public had no idea about hand ball game. He introduced the game to them and built a team that went to the district level. 

Raghavan is currently working in a girls primary school and he sees it as a totally different challenge. He included some thoughts about sports in their prayer session itself! He inspired them with stories of PT Usha, and Sania Mirza. He started inviting local sports persons, got some activities done by them and shared their sports journey with the children. But it is impossible to build a school team with just school time. He had to put in extra time – before school and after school.

Slowly more girls started taking to sports. He had to overcome the challenge of training them on many areas of sports and games such as athletics, Volleyball, Football etc. Also he distinguishes between Physical Education and sports training. But he was bogged down by the demands on a PE teacher. He did not hesitate to take help from his old students. Some of his students have gone to the national level competitions for five successive years! One of his students is in the training camp of Commonwealth Games in weight lifting!

He acknowledges the recognition by the education department in making him a resource person in many seminars. He is fully aware that it is a collective effort and not an individual’s effort alone. What gives him satisfaction is the recognition from his students that Raghavan Sir made a difference!

Hope you enjoyed listening to this recording by Akshara Foundation. If you have an interesting story, please share your story with 98450 79590.