Despite hiring foreign-based football players to produce some magic in Mauritius and Bengaluru, Pakistan football team failed miserably. The story of Pakistan basketball in the five-nation tournament was the same as the team playing against minnows like Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka only won against Maldives — by a margin of two points — and lost to Bangladesh 79-65.

With a strong desire to find talent in different sports at national level, there are hardly any organised sports activities at the grassroots level where future champions are nourished in any systematic manner.

With few safe community sports spaces and inactive education institutions, the children are left with no option but to resort to e-sports or remain loyal to their tabs for video gaming that adds to frustration, and increases obesity and violent trends among the youth.

These physical and social challenges are complex in nature in Pakistan and are on rise even in the rest of countries. In our case, these challenges are enormous because sports are not embedded in our education system.

Let’s take a look at the school-wide physical activity programme of one of the most advanced countries of the world and see how it has overcome these challenges.

Remember that lack of physical activity is a multidimensional problem, associated with changes in our lifestyle, environment of our education institutions and the attitudes of our communities. All of these have contributed to the lack of physical activity of children and adults. We consider sport talent as God-gifted and not the outcome of a system that starts from schools and community clubs.

While awareness of the importance of physical activity for better health has vastly increased, what most people and cultures of the third world and their policy makers do not understand is its importance in areas other than health.

Sports activities play a vital role in developing human behaviour. While the form of play changes throughout the lifespan, the need for playful activity does not. There is solid evidence that motor skills used in play and learned early in life enhance a child’s ability to participate in activities later in life. Elementary schools that have eliminated recess, that do not provide children the opportunity to go out and play deprive students not only of the opportunity to be physically active but also the opportunity to develop the necessary social life skills that they would need as adults to become productive members of society.

A common misconception of educators is that if they take time out to provide students with the physical activity that they need, the students will suffer academically. Actually there is more and more evidence that physical activity enhances cognitive functioning. Physical activity is a great medium for learning other content areas and should be used to actually teach academic content. Great social scientists and educationists like Pellegrini, Huberty & Jones in 1995 suggested that when physical activity and sports are extended to students in schools they are more attentive towards studies and teachers have fewer behaviour problems.

There are many factors that affect the level of physical activity of children and adolescents: where you live, your gender, your age, your socioeconomic status, whether you have access to a qualified physical educator, support of parents and opportunities available to participate in organised sports.

One should remember that children do not need to engage in sustained vigorous physical activity. Rather, vigorous activity should come in short bursts that are accumulated throughout the day. Optimal benefits will occur if children participate in bouts of physical activity lasting at least for 15 minutes followed by drink intervals.

The physical activities must be fun and age appropriate. The focus for children aged between 10 and 12 should be on aerobics, muscle strengthening and bone strengthening. The children usually have a short attention span which means that long duration activities do not capture their attention. They are also concrete rather than abstract thinkers, thus any idea regarding future health benefits is not effective in motivating them. They need evidence of success.

Children who have active parents and family members and who remain involved with children in physical activities are more likely to be active than others.

A study on physical activity for adolescents recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week and vigorous activity of 20 minutes for at least three days during the week. The recommendations for adults are the same as for adolescents.

Most physical activity among youth occurs in school after school hours or in community clubs outside the school setting. Physical activity must form part of community and urban planning. It is alarming to notice that even in the federal capital the walking trails and play areas once developed by CDA are now leveled to create spaces for high rises and new roads.

At the government level if policy makers can find some time out of their dirty politics and think about the health of young people then they should study the US School Wellness Programme of 2004 which directs school districts to formulate and develop wellness policies.

Learned and well informed parliamentarians like Sheeza Khawaja instead of doling out millions to HEC should come out with a School Wellness Policy, thus focusing on providing both nutrition and physical activity to students and employees at school level, which will have long lasting impact on national health standards and form solid basis of children willing to take sports seriously in future.

Despite education and sports being provincial subjects the concerned federal ministries can take a lead from US based Carol M. White Physical education programme commonly known as PEP grants. This federal programme provides grants to initiate, expand and improve physical education programs.

Policy makers at the federal level should seriously think about programs like “Get Pakistan Moving” that targets parents, children and students to get physically active.

Never forget that students are a captive audience and schools instead of looking towards some daydreaming politician capable of bringing change with the help of spiritual powers should take the responsibility of becoming the element of change.

The situation is alarming because the youth is migrating from the country in masses. The economy is at rock bottom and the social sector including sports is at its worst. While efforts to save the economy are the priority of policy makers, the social disaster must also remain in focus as an urgency to safeguard the future of Pakistani youth.

If we fail to stop this downslide and mass migration of youth from Pakistan to other countries due to lack of opportunities and transparency in the system including sports, the time is not far when we will be looking forward to hiring foreign based players in hockey and cricket along with other sports.

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