For years, Kashmir’s private schools have invested heavily in classrooms, smart boards, laboratories and increasingly sophisticated infrastructure. Yet one basic pillar of a child’s education remains neglected: sports.
In a large number of private schools, physical education exists more as a timetable entry than as a meaningful part of schooling. Dedicated sports teachers are either absent, shared among several classes or replaced by teachers who have little professional training in physical education. The result is a generation of children being educated for examinations but not necessarily being prepared for healthy, active lives.
This is not a minor administrative gap. Sport is education. It teaches discipline, teamwork, resilience, leadership and the ability to handle both victory and failure. For a region with enormous sporting talent, denying children structured access to sport is also a missed opportunity.
The contradiction is particularly striking in Kashmir. The Valley has produced promising footballers, cricketers, athletes, martial artists, skiers and players in several other disciplines despite limited grassroots infrastructure. Imagine what could emerge if schools treated sport with the same seriousness as mathematics or science.
The government has repeatedly emphasised fitness, youth engagement and sporting excellence. But these objectives cannot be achieved through stadiums and tournaments alone. The foundation has to be laid inside schools, where children spend most of their formative years.
Private schools, therefore, must stop treating physical education as an optional activity. Every school should have qualified physical education teachers, proper playing time and basic sporting facilities appropriate to its size.
Parents, too, need to ask a simple question while choosing a school: Where is the playground, and who teaches my child to play?
Academic excellence without physical well-being is an incomplete education. Kashmir’s schools must understand that the next generation cannot be built entirely behind desks.
