Kabaddi makes the GCSE grade

OLDHAM Academy North pupils are the first in the country to study kabaddi at GCSE.

Around 22 boys and girls are learning the Asian sport as part of a PE qualification.

There are several forms of the contact team sport in which an attacker scores points during raids into the opponents’ court by attempting to touch as many defenders as possible without getting caught.

England’s womens kabaddi team played to crowds of 40,000 at last year’s world cup in India, where they were mobbed by fans and needed police escorts.

Moinul Islam set up a kabaddi group at Grange School, which later became the academy. The group proved so popular the organisers decided to push for it to become a formal part of the PE GCSE, and were successful this year.

Mr Islam, a head of house at the Rochdale Road school, explained: “I had to write to the examination board and get them to accept kabaddi as a GCSE sport for us to teach it at GCSE. It is the first time it has happened in the country.

“Football and cricket are very popular, the pupils play these sports all the time. I wanted to do something different so I introduced kabaddi at the summer schools. It took off so well that I had to take the next step.”