Participation of Children The Co Curricular Activities at School

Specific purpose: To persuade my audience that parents should encourage their children for joining the co-curricular activities at school.

Central idea: Parents nowadays should encourage their children for joining the co-curricular activities at the school because it helps the children to remain fit and refresh the mind, it enables them to boost self-confidence, and it develops the special skills in children.

Introduction

Co-curricular activities are one of the most important activities that capable to provide a learning experience in education but it also noteworthy for contributing to the whole changes in children’s behavior. Co-curricular activities generally play a vital role at school because it has present the concept of knowledge, experience, and skills across the academic curriculum where students do not gain throughout the classes or lectures.

Co-curricular activities are a compulsory activity at school that stipulates students to participate in physical activities for having better behavioral performance and improve values in preparing students for a rapidly changing world. Before this our sixth-former prime minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak has been emphasized that students must participate in co-curricular activities carried out by the institutions to form an excellent student which is he/she has to consist of soft skills and ability in accomplishing further country development. Through his statement, even though a student has an excellent result by scoring all A’s in their academic result but he/she does not actively involve in co-curricular activities, it could not be guaranteed that he/she will be getting a place in university or working sector. The involvement in non-academic activities such as competitions or sports definitely capable to become a special skill that gives a better chance for a student in securing a place in university or working industry.

The term “co-curricular” has been referred to as activities, programs, or any learning experiences that become complement in some way based on what students are learning when at school. Actually, co-curricular activities are an integral part of an academic curriculum that enables to enhance and boost the regular curriculum by providing educational activities for students.

According to the Ministry of Education, co-curricular activity is an area of channel-based learning of how things work and where activities are structured that mostly will be conducted outside the classroom. Co-curricular activities such as uniformed bodies, sports, clubs, associations, and games can be organized during or after school hours.

According to the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015-2025, an excellent student must be balanced in academic and non-academic activities. The 4C framework is interrelated with co-curriculum activities for helping the development of students holistic. These 4C elements are classified as culture, curriculum, co-curricular, and community to build interpersonal skills and soft skills among students.

Therefore, I would like to persuade each of you where parents must realize the co-curricular activities are crucial for helping their children to become a holistic student that well in terms of curriculum and co-curricular activities which it can become a great chance to develop their personality via psychomotor learning. Let’s begin with the first reason why parents should encourage their children for joining the co-curricular activities at school.

Body

Co-curricular activities can help the children to remain fit and refresh their minds

Sports and games generally have been classified as physical activities along with a healthy diet where it contributes a lot of benefits for individuals in the forms of physical and psychological wellbeing. In co-curricular activities, the students have given the right to choose associations and clubs, uniformed bodies, and sports and games by themself based on their interests. The sports and games such as soccer, badminton, hockey, volleyball, futsal mostly become the favorite activities among students at school. By engaging in sports and game activities, students intuitively have been practiced a healthy lifestyle to remain fit as well as gaining new knowledge and skills. For example, we have been encouraged to exercise at least 20 minutes for three days in one week because it can help us to take out the sweat throughout our skin that consists of toxins.

Sports activities such as this can help students to maintain their physical health and avoid them from getting any chronic diseases or joining any unhealthy activities during their leisure time. Sports and game activities also help the students to enhance their mental health where it capable to relieve and reduce perceived stress. The learning sessions that include the participation of students in the classroom or online indeed make them stressed especially when conducted for a long time.

However, physical activities are not only related to sports and games activities but also including socializing with friends or peers at least two hours per day. According to the researches from the University of Minnesota, almost 14000 students proved that socializing is one of the physical activities that has a positive impact on reducing the students’ stress.

Co-curricular activities also enable to boost self-confidence among children themselves

Self-confidence is crucial in everyone’s life to accomplish the desired goals and encourages them to not easily give up when achieving their desires. However, not all individuals have high self-esteem where they might be shy to talk in front of people or interacting with people in society.

Shyness is a universal problem experienced by all individuals whether adults or children where shyness can bring negative impacts on career development. Lack of social and communication skills definitely causes the students to feel fear and discomfort to speaking in public which is they prefer to become silent, passive, or irresponsive when be greeted by another person. To overcome the shyness and enhance self-confidence, students have to participate in co-curricular activities such as joining debate or choir.

The debate is an activity that is organized by the club which is usually advocates debate competition among the club members. By participating in debate competitions, the students will be confident and reduce the apprehension when speaking in public. Besides, debate activity also increases oral communictions skill and generate the critical thinking skill that essential when delivering their ideas.

The choir is a communication activity that reduces shyness in students where it leads to increasing the confidence level and self-esteem when in front of audiences. Choir or orchestra includes the social interaction between members and communities which is it is can be one of the effective ways to interact with others in society.

Last but not least, co-curricular activities can become a greater opportunity to develop students’ special skills

Co-curricular activities just not able to enhance self-confidence but it also can give a great chance for students to develop their special skills. By engaging in co-curricular activities, students can help themself to sharpen their latent talents. Teachers need to play their role in helping students to know students’ talents and convert them into unique talents.

The tagline of Herbet Spencer highlighted that “a child has so much of inner power that gifted by nature itself” where the power or energy inside children must be lead in the right direction because one day, it can be an important weapon to develop specialist of students. Co-curricular activities can increase the learning experiences of students.

By participating in clubs or associations and uniformed bodies, students can identify and improve their inner talents such as leadership qualities, public speaking skills, and critical thinking skills. Co-curricular activities indeed give a great chance to create innovative ideas and boost their critical thinking when solving the problems or answering the question.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I hope that my speech today will bring some knowledge for all of you about the importance of joining the co-curricular activities when the children take part in those activities. Co-curricular activities are capable to help students to remain fit, refresh their minds, improve self-confidence as well as develop special skills where all these are important for the student’s holistic development. Therefore, the students must be well-planned when participating in co-curricular activities and manage their time wisely between academic and non-academic activities.

References

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