Are academics more important than sporting activities? In YK Pao School (YKPS), we have this rule about sports eligibility: Anyone who has any combination of two NIs (Needs Improvement) or one U (Unsatisfactory) is not eligible to attend any sporting competitions or events that are not required in the normal sporting curriculum. You suffer from the same consequences if you failed two or more than two subjects in your previous report card. Yes, academics are very important, but sports should be the same. Students in YKPS believe that sports eligibility should be changed accordingly because attending sporting activities can improve the movement of brain function, which helps your academics later on and it’s not fair for both the school’s sport team as well as the player himself/ herself.

According to scientific researches, sporting activities helps students perform well in his/ her studies more than any other extracurricular activity (2002, Sociology of Education). Attending sporting activities helps improve students’ self-esteem, develops students’ team spirit and helps students to be physically fit for studies.

Secondly, some students are less talented in academics than in sports, the sports eligibility rule is restraining their opportunity to reveal themselves. Here’s an example. During our previous home soccer match, we ended up loosing the game to Wiss International with a 0 to 9 score. Some of our best soccer players did not have a chance to play in the game. According to one player who played in the soccer match (Mark Yu, Y7), he said that: ‘if all of our best players got a chance to play, we might score more goals and at least ended as a tie, it definitely wouldn’t have been 0 to 9.’

 Are academics more important than sporting activities? I guess the answer is negative. Doing sports helps you in aspects you cannot even imagine yourself. Having a balance of sports and academics is necessary. Therefore, we students in YKPS believe that the sports eligibility should be changed accordingly.