DepEd promotes traditional Pinoy games

The education department is embarking on a Larong Pinoy campaign to lure schoolchildren away from the negative effects of video and computer-based hobbies. Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus said his department is taking the lead in promoting the revival of traditional games in order to refresh values children can draw from sport. "I am all for the return of traditional games," Lapus said at the campaign launching at Museo Pambata in Manila. He said schoolchildren need to go back to playing traditional physical games such as "luksong tinik", a game that require jumping skills, "sipa" which is similar to the Malay Sepak and "patintero", a local adaptation of the western game of tag, among others. "I strongly believe in a campaign that aims to inspire the revival of traditional Filipino games. Hopefully, this would help educate more of the young children about the benefits they will gain from playing such traditional games," Lapus said. The Larong Pinoy campaign was envisioned in view of a recent survey showing that a huge percentage of the recreational time of schoolchildren is spent indoors and in front of computers or TV screens as "couch potatoes." - GMANews.TV