Extracurricular activities are essential (Ah Mon)

Extracurricular Activities are Essential

Extracurricular activities are undertaken outside the regular course of study. These activities can be divided into indoor and outdoor activities. Indoor activities include music and dance, art and craft, drawing and painting, tailoring and so on. Outdoor ones comprise football, volleyball, basketball, excursions and so forth. While some schools and universities are trying to serve these activities to students, some do not pay attention to these ones. Reasons for this difference are depending on the benefits and setbacks resulting from theses activities.
An argument in favour of extracurricular activities is that they can arouse the motivation and enthusiasm of students. Only learning the academic subjects can bring boredom and can make children to become less motivated. Learners without being given the chance to take part in extracurricular activities become dimmed in their qualities and feelings towards learning. Mostly young learners need as much extracurricular activities as possible. Because young learners can be molded through extracurricular activities to become curious, to love and appreciate the nature, to develop the ability to observe and to think creatively. At university level, debate and discussions, academic teams and clubs, culture clubs, volunteer work and community service and etc. are carrying out as more advanced extracurricular activities and bringing positive results on students like becoming more active, enthusiasted, creative and confident learners. Apart from this, extracurricular activities widen the views of learners and give them chances to apply their knowledge. To a great extent, the theoretical knowledge gets strengthened when a relevent extracurricular activity is organized related to the content taught in the classroom. Furthermore, these activities encourage learners to find out what their hobbies and interests are and to develop their characters, social skills, coordination, speech fluency, aesthetics and moral values. 
On the other hand, an argument against extracurricular activities is that they make the educators busy. It is not an easy job to carry out these activities with careful and skillful planning. For instance, during excursions, teachers always need to keep their eyes on the children not to get lost or not to let something bad happen. They also have to prepare a lot before excursions like hiring cars, preparing for foods and managing of money. Besides, extracurricular activities reduce the amount of time on learning academic subjects. In some cases, teachers groan concerning with the extracurricular activities for delaying to finish the curriculum in time. Moreover, over use of extracurricular activities discourage the interest of students on academic subjects. 
To take everything into account, the mixture of pluses and minuses are included in extracurricular activities. However, the benefits of extracurricular activities outweigh the drawbacks. I think every school and university should set aside time for extracurricular activities and ensure that these activities are operated in moderation because excessive or insufficient use of them can cause side effects. Therefore, it is to be considered that extracurricular activities are the essential tools for bringing the best out of the learners and supporting all round development of the learners.

Ah Mon