Why Extra-Curricular Activities Are Important

Before jumping into the benefits and importance of it, let’s understand what extra-curricular activities really mean. These are activities that one pursues in addition to the normal course of study. Anything else you do apart from your curricular, that is, from your everyday school work is classified as extracurricular.

And while extra co-curricular activities are outside the regular curriculum yet still something that complements it. While extra-curricular fall outside the realm of your institution's curriculum. Some extra-curricular activities examples include sports (both indoor and outdoor sports), arts and hobbies (includes arts and crafts, music, dance, etc)  community services (volunteering for varied clubs), internships, and educational clubs (public speaking, debates, etc).

Why extra-curricular activities are important

Like Aristotle had said, “the quality of life is determined by its activities”. We believe that in the same sense, the right activities that you choose to enhance your skills can help make your life a lot more fun and rewarding.

Here are some of the reasons why it is important:  

• Skills include (but are not limited to) - goal setting, teamwork, time management, prioritization, problem-solving, analytical thinking, leadership and public speaking.
• Research shows that experiencing outdoor space, especially during childhood and adolescence benefits your physical and mental health. Including improved cognitive and motor skills and a lower risk of obesity.
• Alongwith acquiring/ improving the skill that you opt for, most extra-curricular activities help one develop skills like leadership qualities, teamwork skills, and problem-solving skills.
• Helps you boost academic performances and gets you job-ready too. For critical-thinking, and creativity are traits that one can learn with near to any activity that they choose, and these help you go a long way.
• Extra-curriculars are mostly done in groups, thus, helping you build your social skills. Like Kiernan Shipka had said, “I make most of my friends through my extra-curricular activities.”
• Balancing your school curriculum and extra-curricular activities helps you learn effective time management skills.
• These skills can add up and enrich your resume.
• You get a chance to explore and diversify your interests. Broaden your views, and unlock passions that you hadn’t even known existed.
• It is an amazing way to help children continue learning outside the classroom.  
• It also builds a competitive streak (healthy competition, for it's all fun and games here) in the students.
• The opportunity to explore different areas and yourself beyond academics, identify your interests and chase them!

Final Thoughts

Research shows that 70% of CEOs held at least one office in a club or organization during college. This should be a motivation to encourage yourself and those around you to explore and broaden your horizon with adequate extra-curricular skills.  

As per the Global Education Census, 74% of Indian students say that they play sports regularly in school. However, while this is great, one should also work on other skills.

And a big advantage, all thanks to today’s advanced technology is that you can work on acquiring those via e-platforms too. Online teaching apps make it easy to help students learn multiple skills. One such online coaching app is Winuall, which provides them 100s of options by highly-skilled online tutors.  

Also Read:

1. How to create a mindmap when studying?
2. Top 5 effective study methods