Article

When I say that sport is an ideal school for life I know not many of you would agree. But taking a different view the skill learned through play, physical education and sport are foundation to what I will call the holistic development of young people. These skills include cooperation and confidence. These are essential for social cohesion and grow up with an individual. Cooperation and confidence taught in formal classroom is temporal and to many doesn't last long.

Think of certain key values learned when young people and kids play freely and openly without a referee. To this stage I will only identify a few skills and values learned through sport which I believe missing open space for sport also imply missing these values to our young people. When kids play on themselves they learn to cooperate which imply among their minds the sense of fair play take it course. When they communicate in any form it implies that there is a sharing. Respecting for the rules of the game at hand send a signal to each one involved that sense of self esteemed is working. When misunderstanding erupt among themselves and problem solving take its course while playing imply there is a trust and understanding among the players mean that there is honest. Other values are leadership which create tolerance, respect to others which create resilience, value of effort build up a teamwork, how to win develop discipline, how to lose develop confidence and how to manage competition etc.

If you have no sense of sport in your heart you will dismiss my argument But, open space and associated sport activity provide a forum for kids at their respective ages to learn how to cope with competition, not only how to lose but also how to win. I might be disputed by other school of thoughts but I would like to assure you that sport is a way to build understanding of the values of common bonds. One benefit of encouraging traditional games (which I am worried that our young people are missing because there is no open space) is that they emphasise the importance of diversity, contribute to inclusion and help people understand their own identity regardless of their socio-economic background.

When I refer to ‘sport, education and inclusion' reminds me of my days when I was studying gender issues in my master's degree a decade ago. What I mean is that skills and values learned through sport are especially important for girls as they grow up, as most girls have fewer opportunities than boys for social interaction outside the home and beyond family networks. Through sport, girls would get chance to be leaders and improve their confidence and self esteem. When girls begin to participate in sport they build their interpersonal links and access to new confidence skills which make them more engaged in their normal life and in particular challenging the stereotype of girls and women and break down entrenched attitudes. Today, I will end here, but I would like to remind ourselves that lacking open space for informal sport activities is lacking the value and skills I have mentioned above.