Discipline in sports

Sir,

Discipline is important in any walk of life, without discipline it is impossible to move ahead. That is why greatmen have stressed on the importance of discipline. Similarly in the field of sports discipline is important. Sports mean a friendly contest which aims at physical well-being as well as entertainment. But nowadays sports have turned more vocal, violent and rabid. They have become driven by ulterior motives or by personal egoes.

The recent incident of slapping of Shreeshant by Harbajan Singh has again brought to limelight the chances of violence in sports. Under no circumstances can this incident be called sporty. Physical assault is the last thing that can be tolerated. Some months ago the cricket sport as a whole received a rude shock at the verbal bash between the same Harbajan and Andrew Symonds. In that case the whole nation was behind Harbhajan Singh whom the millions of sports fans found to be at the receiving end of the partisan Australian justice. Even Indian Board of Cricket Control took a tough stand on the issue. But in the Shreeshant slapping case the IPL and the BCCI has acted tough. An eleven match ban and a loss of three crores for Bajji will temper him down. But the question here is not of one player of the other. The question is that why violence occurs on the ground even between team mates.

These incidents should not be allowed to happen as they tarnish the image of sports which in any case is not a war but a friendly contest aimed at entertainment.

Yours etc...
J S Jamwal
Greater Kailash
Jammu

Innovative teaching

Sir,

An interesting article was published in the Sunday Edition of this paper titled, ''Exam season turns suicide season'' (Mar 30) by Dr Jitendra Singh. The article was thought provoking and in very tacit and rational way laid bare the educational system of our country. It would not be out of context to here to quote Dr. Singh. ''Time has come for the nation's planners and education experts to contemplate and encourage alternative methods of assessing a candidate's merit rather than making the arithmatic of marks as the soul basis. There is also an urgent need to educate families and infact the society in general. After all, of what use is such education system that fails to educate even about the value of life and instead drives the youngsters to kill themselves?"

Here a highly pertinent question is raised about the efficacy of our educational system which does not even teach us to regard life as precious. In this regard I would like to say that a recent study conducted in India has revealed that by world standards the best schools in India have been considered mediocre as they have failed to make understand the key concepts of Mathematics, Science and English. It is a fact that not a single University from India featured in the top 200 universities of the world in a recent survey on institutes of exellence the world over.

Thus we need an innovative method of teaching Science and Maths at the school level. I have made some humble attempts in this direction by converting science text books of 8th, 9th and 10th class into multicoloured pictorial slides suitable for transmission through National T.V to reach remote parts of the State. Hope such attempts will be given real boost by the authorities in the education department so that learning for the young generation become easy.

Yours etc...
S S Dhani
Rajinder Nagar
Bantalab
Jammu

Shortage of officers

Sir,

Indian army is one of the most professional armies of the world. Built on the pattern of British army during the days of the Raj it has grown from strength to strength. In Asia it is the second largest army and probably the most professional one. With a sanctioned strength of about 1.2 million men and women the army is presently coping up hard to keep its officers to soldiers ratio to the desired and accepted levels.

Of late the number of army officers has significantly gone down. There are variety of reasons for this. For the youngmen of this country army does not seem to be a lucrative job. The brilliant young people instead opt for MBA or similar qualification and join private companies where money is aplenty. Previously to serve in army was considered a matter of pride but in the corporate world of today army has lost its attraction for the talented young people.

The need of the hour is that very practical and hard measures are taken so that army once again becomes an attractive career for the young people of the country. It is only in this way that we can close the gap of the shortage of army officers in the army.

Yours etc...
Rajesh Gupta
Gandhi Nagar
Jammu