Healthy activities: Unleashing hidden talent of public school children

Dosti Sports Festival held to encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities

SUKKUR: Children from public schools seldom get opportunities to take part in extracurricular activities and, therefore, we are focusing on them to explore their hidden talent, said Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP) senior programme manager Kashif Siddiqui at the Dosti Sports Festival on Tuesday.

He was addressing a sports festival organised by CSSP, in collaboration with British Council, School of Leadership Foundation, social welfare department and others, at Public School Sukkur. A large number of students participated in the event, which was organised with the aim to provide extracurricular activities to students belonging to public schools.



Speaking on the occasion, Siddiqui thanked the British Council and other stakeholders for their efforts in organising the event. He said that the event provided opportunity to students belonging to rural primary schools, to engage themselves in healthy extracurricular activities. It was our endeavour to bring every child, irrespective of their gender, to schools and our volunteers are doing a tremendous job, said Siddiqui.

While expressing his jubilance over organising such an event for the underprivileged students, British Council programme manager Abdal Mufti said it is heartening to see children, belonging to rural areas, take active part in extracurricular activities. Educating the public is a good thing but extracurricular activities further spark interest among the students, he said.

School of Leadership Foundation manager Arsalan said that students from eight primary public schools participated in the event. Arsalan said he is hopeful that next year more schools will be taking part and congratulated the parents, teachers and students for their outstanding performance in this event.

Students from government primary schools participated in various competitions, including 100-metres race, sack race, lemon and spoon race, skipping rope race and three-legged race. The 100 meter race was won by Abdul Hameed of Government Primary School, Sitam Daro, while Muhammad Panjal from the same school secured first position in lemon and spoon race. Maryam Khoso from Government Primary School, Ghulam Goth, got the first position in skipping rope race and Sher Muhammad of Government Primary School, Panhwari, won the sack race. The three-legged race was won by Adeel and Jalal Din of Government Primary School, Ghulam Goth.

The children also presented performance on the theme of friendship and education. The students of Government Primary School, Ghulam Goth, won the trophy for best tableau, while the overall championship trophy was won by the students of Government Primary School, Sitam Daro. Trophies were awarded to the winning teams and the volunteers who organised the event. Social welfare department deputy director Abdul Qudoos Memon, additional primary education director Nuzhat Bukhari, primary education district education officer Naseem Lakho and others also attended the event. Sukkur Commissioner Muhammad Abbas Baloch was supposed to be the chief guest but could not make it to the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2016.