PANJIM:
One of the world’s richest sportswomen and five-time Grand Slam tennis champion
Maria Sharapova’s success story does not interest academicians in the State
anymore.
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 to go-ahead with the chapter ‘Reach for the Top’
depicting Sharapova’s unwavering desire to succeed and 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 had
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.
