Recently, the education ministry made a clarion call to all schools to ensure that every Saturday students engage in sports with the objective of ensuring general body fitness. Education Times, Allan Brian Ssenyonga & Ben Gasore visited some schools to find out the challenges of heeding this important message and the benefits of sport in educationDifferent studies indicate that there is a link between academic performance and participation of students in physical activity like sports.

How well children perform in the classroom could be linked to how physically active they are, several studies have indicated. Could this be the reason behind the recent directive by the Education Ministry to all schools asking them to ensure that participation of students in sports is mandatory? On a bright Sunday afternoon, the students of Alliance High School, Nyacyonga gathered around the football pitch to witness a game that seemed to serve as their version of the Champions’ League final. They had spent the night before screaming as they watched Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. However even on Sunday many were still mere spectators as the school team took on a select team of former students. The Ministry of Education took note of this and called on schools to encourage every student to engage in some kind of sports and not leave matters to those who belong to the school team. "Before the Ministry passed the directive, it was found out that students who used to do sports were only those playing for their various school teams,” said Emile Rurerwa, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education.Rurerwa pointed this out as the sole reason for having all students in schools go for extracurricular activities like sports and basic fitness drills commonly referred to as Mchaka mchaka on Saturdays. There are enough studies to point out the benefits of having students who are healthy and physically fit as captured by old Latin saying, Mens sana in corpora sano which means, a healthy mind in a healthy body. Indeed in many schools the issue of sports is left to the few who wish to represent the school in competitions but also others who wish to partake in sports tend to find it difficult. The general hilly topography of Rwanda makes it difficult and expensive to construct sports grounds for most schools. The pitch at Alliance High School cost the owners a fortune to level as they had to cut into a hill and struggle with massive soil erosion. "The topography in this country makes it expensive to level the ground for a sports pitch. That is why many schools do not have and those that do have only one,” said Isaac Byamukama, the deputy headmaster at Alliance High School."We are working together with the Ministry of Education and local government officials to see that we set up these sports facilities ourselves. We don’t need to rely on money from the government or aid but we can as well do this through ‘Umuganda’ where students can clear and level areas where they can do sports,” said Edward Kalisa, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Sports. Kalisa added that a directive had also been made by the government to private schools to have in place sports facilities in their premises. Some private schools with sufficient sports facilities are even known to use this as a marketing tool. For example, Riviera High School has football, netball, basketball, tennis and even a swimming facility for the students. The owners of the school have also hinted on putting up a cricket ground in future since there is still enough land for that. Academic performance at school linked to exerciseHow well children perform in the classroom could be linked to how physically active they are, suggests a Dutch review of previous studies.Writing in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, researchers said they found strong evidence of a link between exercise and academic performance.The review looked at 14 studies involving more than 12,000 children.Exercise may help by increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain, it said.But the authors of the study, from VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, said more accurate and reliable measurement instruments were needed to examine the link in greater detail.Dr Amika Singh and colleagues were prompted to look at the relationship between physical activity and academic performance because of concerns that pressure to improve children’s school marks could mean they spend more time in the classroom and less time doing physical activity.So the authors identified 10 observational and four interventional studies for review.Twelve of the studies were conducted in the United States, one in Canada and one in South Africa.Sample sizes ranged from 53 to about 12,000 participants between the ages of six and 18 years."Children who learn to participate in sport also learn to obey rules. This may mean they are more disciplined and able to concentrate...” said Dr Amika SinghThe period of follow-up varied between eight weeks and more than five years.Two of the studies reviewed were rated as being of high quality, the study says. Blood flowResearchers said they found strong evidence of a "significant positive relationship” between physical activity and academic performance using those two studies as evidence.The study said this could be because exercise helps cognition by increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain.Physical activity could also reduce stress and improve mood, making children more likely to behave in the classroom.Dr Singh said: "Children who learn to participate in sport also learn to obey rules. This may mean they are more disciplined and able to concentrate better during lessons.”The researchers said more studies examining the exact relationship between physical activity and academic performance were needed."People always ask, ‘How much exercise do I need to do to get an A?’ We don’t know that but we would like to find out,” said Dr Singh."Children should be active for at least one hour a day, for health reasons. But we also need to look at other things, like what kind of activities they should do, when they should do them and for how long.”Reliable and valid measurement instruments were also required to assess the relationship accurately, the study added.No study in their systematic review used an objective measure of physical activity. Many of the studies required children or their parents to note down how much exercise they were doing. Cricket is one of the games that are struggling because of the lack of standard cricket grounds in the country. Joshua Mwanja, General Manager of Rwanda Cricket Association told Education Times that they were working to see that all schools are fitted with cricket facilities. "We have already put cricket flicx and movable wickets in Kagarama Secondary school and Lycee de Kigali. We are looking to place them in every secondary school together with nets, where students can be practicing from,” Mwanja said.Jean Bosco Giriubwiko, the sports master at Gihogwe Secondary School said that the school already has a soccer pitch and volleyball sports ground and that the school was looking to have more facilities. As noted many schools seem to concentrate on only football and volley as these are easier to set up. Basketball courts and tennis courts are in only a few schools. At Kagarama Secondary School most of the sports facilities are in place. "When it comes to sports, we have a football pitch, basketball court and a volleyball pitch that is also used for handball. We also have a hall that students use for karate training and equipment for cricket,” said Dennis Agaba a S.6 student at the school. According to Dennis, students have embraced new games like cricket and the school has even won several trophies from different competitions. Besides laying ground for a sound academic mind, games keep students busy when they are not in class and keeping them from thinking or engaging in anti-social behaviours that are not permitted in schools. In general a robust sports campaign in schools can go a long way into aiding sports authorities to find talented sportsmen and women who can represent the country at national levels such as the Olympic Games. All this can only be achieved once the above challenges are addressed.