Sports day
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Sports days (
In schools which use a house system a feature of the school is the competition between the houses; this is especially brought out during sporting events such as an inter-house sports day.
Games that are played on school sports days can be wide and varied. They can include straightforward sprints and longer races for all age groups as well as
Global
India
In India, sports days are held for 2–3 days. These include games like
Japan
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Undoukai.jpg/220px-Undoukai.jpg)
Sports day, called undōkai (運動会) in Japanese, is usually held on a Saturday or Sunday in Japanese schools. During weeks preceding the sports day, students practice their events which they would like to show their parents and friends, within their class of physical education, which often includes tamaire, performances by the school band and presentations by various school clubs as well as individual and group competitive events. These practices, and the sports days themselves, normally take place on the schools' fields, which provide little relief from the heat and sun.[citation needed]
Some schools have responded by scheduling their sports days during cooler months and by encouraging their students to drink water regularly. Currently, the event occurs most often in the autumn (September/October), or in the spring (May/June). In
Pakistan
Sport is a significant part of
Over recent years there has been an increase in sporting activity in Pakistan, with Pakistani sportsmen and women participating at many national and international events. Also, more international tournaments now take place in Pakistan. The size of the teams Pakistan sends, and the number of events they participate in, such as the Olympic Games, Asian Games, World Games, and Commonwealth Games has increased since the turn of the century.
Russia
Sports Day in Russia is held on the second Saturday in August.
Qatar
Sports day is a national holiday, held every second-Tuesday of February every year.
In offices
Many large organizations have sports days for their employees. One notable example is
Controversies
There have been a number of controversies surrounding school sports days in recent years, many of which have been publicised by the media.
Some schools have abolished or heavily altered sports days on the grounds that they are too competitive and may damage pupils' self-esteem, with some commentators calling for the event to be banned due to the public humiliation caused to those children who are not gifted athletically.[4] This view has been condemned as "political correctness" by many commentators, notably by journalist Melanie Phillips in her 1996 book All Must Have Prizes, a book heavily criticised by reviewers for its alleged prejudiced, fact-less and distorted analyses.[5]
In June 2005, Country Life magazine published a report claiming that school sports days have become excessively competitive due to overbearing and "over-zealous" parents, who place too much pressure on their children to succeed. The report also revealed that many schools have banned "mothers and fathers" races due to fighting and cheating.
Since the mid-1990s, a number of schools and education authorities have banned photography and filming with
References
- Japan Times, 19 October 2010, p. 3. Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-62513-365-6.
- ^ "اليوم الرياضي الوطني - Qatar Sports for all Federation". Sports for all Federation (in Arabic). Retrieved 2016-02-08.
- ^ Witchalls, Clint (14 July 2004). "Why I want to ban sports day". The Guardian.
- Independent.co.uk. 13 September 1996. Archivedfrom the original on 2022-05-24.