PANJIM: Maria Sharapova isn’t likely to have heard of this, but Goa’s academics aren’t interested in serving her chapter to young students after she revealed that she had failed a drug test for a recently banned substance meldonium.
Sharapova is one of the world’s richest sportswomen and five-time Grand Slam tennis champion. After she failed a drug test, educationists and parents of school students have demanded that Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) drop the English chapter on the sports celebrity.
However, the Board has decided not to volley her completely out of Goa’s text books. It has still allowed the chapter on her to be a part of the school syllabus albeit with a rider. The chapter ‘Reach for the Top’ depicts Sharapova’s unwavering desire to succeed and her willingness to sacrifice but have added that her being banned for two years for taking the banned drug meldonium be mentioned in the class.
“We have received representations from associations, academicians and others to delete the topic from Class IX’s English textbooks after she suffered reputational damage for failing the drug test. But we have instead instructed teachers that while teaching the unit, they should also focus on moral values by explaining on how use of unfair means can lead to a negative impact,” GBSHSE Secretary Shivkumar Jangam told Herald.
Teachers have also been asked to stress on proper character development ‘so as to be responsible citizens in order to build a good society and a strong nation’.
The Board is yet to take a call on whether the chapter will continue next academic year even as there are indications it could be excluded from the book. “It depends on developments during this period. For now, we have asked the teachers to add moral values to the existing story on Sharapova by explaining on how bad habits could prove a doom,” he added.
Beehive, the textbook in English was introduced for Class IX in 2006-07 wherein the tennis ace’s rising career was included as Unit 8 Part II. The former world number one from Russia had tested positive for meldonium, a drug she said she had been taking since 2006 but was added to the banned list this year.
After being banned from the sport, she had said a change in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list for 2016 led to an inadvertent violation, which left her ‘provisionally suspended’ by the International Tennis Federation.
Sharapova, who will most likely miss the Rio Olympics, has appealed against the ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Perhaps, just perhaps, she might think of appealing to the Goa Board too, to drop her chapter in the future. If she does, that will another ace served by her.
