EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES HELPS IN DEVELOPING HUMAN CAPITAL

DEVELOPMENT

Human capital development is very significant to all the advance country in various
aspects such as education, economy, and social. Human capital development become
backbone of the nation to achieve victory. Human capital development is defined as the
procedure that related to the education, training and other professional initiatives in order to
expand or increase the level of skills, knowledge, abilities, social assets and values of a
person. Due to the globalization, human capital development is getting wider attention
because it is moving towards accelerating the economic growth by putting more efforts on it.
Thus, I will explain more on how extracurricular activities at school helps to build human
capital development in context of education. Extracurricular activities at school helps
students to build human capital development.

Extracurricular activities are the activities that take place outside of the classroom.
According to Cadwallader, Garza, and Wagner (2002), extracurricular activities are defined
as the activities in which students participate after the regular school day has ended. It means
the extracurricular will take place after normal school hours has ended. In Malaysia,
extracurricular activities include primary school and secondary school students. It is a must
for each student to have one sports activity, uniform activity and club activity. Example of
extracurricular activities is student council, school sports teams, maths club, chess club,
talents shows and many more.

There are some issues regarding extracurricular activities at school. The main problem
based on the extracurricular activities is time constrain. Most of the students will be very tired
after the school hours. The students did not show any interest on the extracurricular activities.
Other than that, the teachers also did not show much important for the extracurricular
activities at the school. The teachers tend to feel bored and tired of extracurricular activities at
the school. It is all about a person interest to take part in any activities that carry out at the
school. When, there is no any interest or motivation from both parties which is teachers and
students, such activity will not be effective. When the teacher and students have same level of
interest and motivation to participate in extracurricular activities, then the extracurricular
activities will achieve success. To overcome these problem during extracurricular activities,
students and teachers must work together to promote good environment during the activities
is carry out. Extracurricular activities benefit to build human capital development and there
are a lot of advantages for a student to be active in extracurricular activities.
 Moreover, lack of qualified trainers will be another issue in the extracurricular
activities. Not all the teachers at school are well trained about the extracurricular activities.
When there is not enough training for teachers to conduct extracurricular activities, they just
simply carry out some simple activities to fill in the time of extracurricular activities on every
Wednesday. It is one of the main problem that the teachers faced at the school. In addition, to
make extracurricular activities more fun, the school have to spend a lot of money as well. We
all aware of the sport equipment’s are much expensive when we want to buy it and use at the
school. Thus, school is lack in term of equipment’s to carry out extracurricular activities.
Government should provide training for all the teachers and enough fund to proceed the
extracurricular activities at the school. Government should take into consideration this matter
carefully because extracurricular activities help to uphold the human capital development
among the students at the school.

The students who participate actively in extracurricular activities get a lot of benefits
in their life. While out of school hours’ activities helps students to build their
communications skill. Communication skill is very essential for all the students at school.
When the students take part in the extracurricular activities at school they indirectly develop
their communication skill. As for the example in MBMMBI club there are some allocated
activity by the teacher for the students to do activity based on speaking skill such as role play
activity, storytelling competition, public speaking and many more. These activities help to
build the students confidence at the same time. When the students try to speak in front of
their friends, they will get some practice to speak and they will be confident to communicate
with each other. As we all know, practice makes perfect. When we practice the speaking skill
in extracurricular activities, then the students will try to speak well and be perfect one day.
Thus, extracurricular activities help students to build their communication skill and at the
same time boost their confidence level.

In addition, extracurricular activities will assistance students to stay fit, healthy and
active. It is good for students to stay healthy during schooling period because it will help
them to reduce level of sickness. Most of the students will be absent for the school due to the
health factor. This problem can be overcome when the students participate in the
extracurricular activities at school such as sports activity. Sports activity such as badminton,
volleyball, netball, tennis and many more. The students will be active to participate in the
extracurricular activities at school. To support this, a study was conducted by Daley and
Leahy in (2003) which explain more on the improvement in self-concept caused by
involvement in physical activity. When students involve in physical extracurricular activities,
it will reduce the stress caused by excessive studies. Based on the physical activities, the
students will remain physically and mentally fit. When the students body is in a good shape
which will give them self-confidence and better view of their presence. Thus, those who are
not involved in any physical activities at all will lack in these qualities. As from this, we can
conclude that, extracurricular activities support to form human capital development in context
of education.

Leadership quality is fundamental for all the students. The student’s success which
comes from their qualities, values, and skills will determine their life success and the society
for future success stated by Johnson (2013). Extracurricular activities will make students to
build the students leadership quality. According to Eccles (2003) the type of extracurricular
programs and level of participation may impact the individual’s development. There will be
one leader for each club, sports and uniform at the school. When the leadership qualities and
skills are fostered in students from early age, then this will assistance the students to have
strong characters while growing up stated by Godbole (2011). Thus, teachers will select one
leader for each unit and from that time the leader will help teacher to handle the club at the
school. Based on that, the students will learn how to lead a group of students. According to
Johnson (2013) children are not kids but also the future leaders. So, from extracurricular
activities the teachers will know who can be the best leader for the rest of the students. As a
student, by participate in these extracurricular activities, he or she need to know about its
contrary effects, how one should maintain a balance between extracurricular and their
academic. It is good for a student to keep their daily routine busy with healthy activities,
otherwise they might get involved in bad habits such as drugs, smoking and many more. It is
necessary for all the students to take part in the extracurricular activities at school and it will
ensure the students to use their time in some benefit activities.

As a conclusion, extracurricular activities help to build human capital development.

Human capital development is very important for a growth of a country to achieve success.
Teachers and students have to work together to make extracurricular activities more effective
at school. Teachers have to create activities that arouse students interest to participate in
extracurricular activities.
Reference

Cadwallader, T., Garza, N., and Wagner, M. (2002). Participation In Extracurricular

Activities. Retrieved from www.nlts2.org/reports/2003_04-2/nlts2_report_ 2003_04-

2_ch4.pdf

Daley, A., & Leahy, J. (2003). Self-perceptions and participation in extracurricular

physical activities. The Physical Educator.

Eccles, J. (2003). Extracurricular activities and adolescent development. Journal of Social

Issues, 59(4),865-889.

Godbole, M. (2011). Qualities of leadership in children. Retrieved from

http://www.buzzle.com

Johnson, M. (2013). They’re not “just kids”, they’re future leaders. Retrieved from

http://kidzmatter.com