For Nigerian schools to groom a complete child with quality social and emotional skills needed to have a successful career, they must blend academics with sports, Susan Babatunde-Yamah, the proprietor/CEO of Blooming Greens School, has said.
Speaking on Friday at the Blooming Greens School Games Festival held in Lagos, Babatunde-Yamah said sports and academics work hand in hand, which is why Blooming Greens understands the importance of having sporting activities.
According to her, the game festival is a very special day because it aids the plans of Blooming Greens School to groom a total child.
“Academic is core in Blooming Greens School but it is not all about academics alone. You must have sporting activities to develop and enhance the social and emotional skills as well as the physical fitness of the child. It will also help the school to identify talents, groom and see them through,” she explained.
The Blooming Greens proprietor further said that sports help to teach children at a young age, the skills they required to be good citizens.
“They need sports to build social and emotional skills. They need to understand that in life, you sometimes win or lose. If you lose, you must be able to pick up your pieces to become better while the winner must stand on it and keep winning. Physically, we all need to keep fit because one cannot do a lot of things if he or she is not fit. So, we will continue to teach the children to keep fit while we the adults must do the same to stay healthy and strong at all times,” she explained.
Babatunde-Yamah urged school owners to look beyond the government to develop sporting facilities that would enable them to develop a total child.
“If you want to have children with physical fitness, emotional stability, social skills and sound mind, we have to have good sporting facilities. Some adults lack social skills which make it difficult for them to relate with one another and work as a team, but sports teach children to work as a team and to learn that one can either win or lose in life,” she added.
On his part, Lopeye Ogunrinola, chairman of the Blooming Greens Games Festival, described sports as a very vast foundation for building positive values.
He said it is one of the greatest things that man created and serves as a tool that breaks strong barriers and makes people feel good.
“Sports help the children to develop character and build a friendship. It helps them to build the drive to always want to win and to win right. It helps the children to work as a team and respect authority,” he said.
Ogunrinola urged parents to encourage their kids to participate in sports because sporting also comes with several health benefits.
“Blooming Greens has raised the bar and we need to celebrate them. We need to encourage them because this would be the bedrock of the future of our children who would go on to win medals and competitions in their secondary school and beyond,” he said.
Citing an example of Nigeria’s Amusan that won the 100m hurdle in 2022 started sporting like the children of Blooming Greens are doing today, which goes to prove that some of these children would grow to represent Nigeria in sporting competition irrespective of their tribe or skin colour.
The 2023 games festival organised by Blooming Greens School created an opportunity for the children to participate in sports such as races, bouncing races, car races, picking balls, blindfold searches, sack races, relay races, skipping, relays, catching the ball and filling the bottle among others.
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Photo Caption:
L-R: Lopeye Ogunrinola, chairman of the Blooming Greens School Games Festival; Brig. Gen Ibrahim Kolade Alawode (rtd), chairman of the occasion, Susan Babatunde-Yamah, proprietor/CEO of the Blooming Greens School; Babatunde Yamah, her husband, and Ebere Nzewuji, member of the Board of trustees, at the 2023 Blooming Greens School Games Festival held in Lagos on Friday.
