How Should Esports/Gaming and Schools Work Together?
The current pandemic has forced schools to move their learning online. Despite the necessity, there will be a limitation when it comes to the type of engagement activities among students. Esports is seen to be a good alternative as the activity can be conducted fully online and has been adopted by many schools.
However, recently there was a social media feedback from a parent disagreeing on the increase of such gaming tournaments organised by the schools, saying that parents are trying to restrict their children from gaming but schools are encouraging it. It was also mentioned by the concerned parent that such activities will cause more harm than good.
Educating Esports
There are many ways to educate the younger generation about Esports besides just creating tournaments. Esports education can also include workshops on rules of the game, moral values, marshalling, gaming responsibly and even more technical areas with regards to organising an Esports event such as commentary or livestreaming a show. Schools have a responsibility to educate and create a platform where students learn new skills and this can be in line with that objective. If schools just create tournaments and allow the students to play without emphasising what they could learn out of this, then it will lead to students having the wrong idea of this whole program.
Approval from Game Publisher
As representatives of the Malaysian education system, the organisers should also seek approval from the relevant game publishers (Tencent for PUBG Mobile, Moonton for Mobile Legends). Besides having the right branding on their posters, it is also important to follow the guidelines such as minimum age requirement to play the game - for PUBG Mobile is 16 years old and 7 years old for Mobile Legends. Charging a registration fee is also generally discouraged by the game publishers.
Acceptance of Esports/Gaming
It is about time that we start to accept that the younger generation enjoys gaming. If we continue to deny them, it can backfire and they could turn rebellious. But we also know that anything done in excessive is not good. This is where parents and the educational system should step in to teach them about time management and knowing what their priorities are as students, obviously that would mean studying.
Esports is not only about playing the game. Students who are interested need to realise that they cannot depend on only playing to achieve their dreams to be an Esports athlete. The training of an Esports athlete also requires studying about the game, team discussion, analysing of meta and playing proper scrims. Without this, they would reach a point where they will find it difficult to change their playstyles to adapt to different situations. This in-depth study about the game is what differentiates a casual player from an Esports athlete.
Some higher education institutes have started having curriculums in Esports with the objective of teaching healthy gaming and technical aspects of the game. However, such educative model is not yet available in the primary and secondary school level.
Schools under the supervision of the Ministry of Education should take a closer look into the bigger objective of such programs. If executed right, it could be the start of an early Esports education model that we need for the younger generation.
At the end of the day, Esports is a professional industry, different from casual gaming and should have its own incubation model which everyone at various levels have a responsibility to. - The Vibes. July 15, 2021
