Regular Schooling is good, but not for everyone. We have alternatives like Skola Online to cater for the others.
Picture this: a 15-year-old state-level badminton player, really talented, wakes up at 4:45 a.m. every single day. Gets to the academy, trains hard, comes back drenched and tired, eats something quick, and then off to school.
And not just school. the full thing. All seven periods, homework, pre-boards, teachers who look at her like she’s wasting her life playing “just sports.”
“Boards are coming,” they say. “You can’t keep missing classes.”
By evening, she’s broken. Not tired but broken. Her muscles are sore from training, but her head is spinning with missed topics, unit tests she couldn’t prepare for, attendance warnings. The thing she loves most, badminton is starting to feel like the reason her life is falling apart.
And here’s the thing? This is not some rare, inspirational story. This is thousands of kids. Right now In your city & in your neighbourhood.
Cricketers, Swimmers, Footballers, Kids who genuinely have what it takes to play for the state, maybe the country. But they’re stuck in a system that wasn’t made for them.
The invisible pressure no one really talks about!
Everyone claps when a kid wins a medal. School assembly, photos, trophies. It’s all very nice.
But what about the day after? When that same kid has to face a class test, she missed because of a tournament? When the school principal calls her parents in and says, “Either focus on studies or sports, you can’t do both”?
That happens all the time, and nobody celebrates that.
Most schools are built for one type of student. The kid who shows up every day at 8 a.m., sits through every class, does the homework, takes the tests on schedule. If you’re a serious athlete, sorry…. that model just doesn’t work for you.
So, these kids try and they really do. They stay up late doing homework after practice. They skip meals to make time for studying. They feel guilty every single day, like guilty for training, guilty for missing class, guilty for not being “focused enough” on academics and much more stress which is a cost of being unlike other students.
Finally, one day, something snaps, not on the field. In their head, they start thinking they’re stupid or lazy because they can’t manage both. Parents get worried, schools get strict, and the sport the thing that gave them joy, discipline, and purpose, gets sacrificed first.
It’s heartbreaking, honestly.
Do board exams and serious sports have to be enemies?
I talk to a lot of parents about this. And every single one says the same thing:
“I support my child’s sport. I really do. But what if they mess up their 10th or 12th? What then?”
I get it. Board marks still matter in India. You need them for colleges, for forms, for opportunities. That’s just reality.
But here’s what I want to ask: Why are we making kids choose?
The issue isn’t education. The issue is the structure. Fixed timings, attendance registers, one pace for everyone, no flexibility for kids who have something extraordinary going on.
If a child can play at national level, if they have that kind of dedication and discipline, why does the system punish them for it? Why can’t education work around their commitment instead of forcing them to shrink their dreams?
There’s no good reason. We just haven’t built alternatives, until now!
Open schooling changes everything and I mean everything!
NIOS is different. It’s government-recognized, it’s not a backup plan, and honestly, it’s what the system should’ve offered all along. It is an autonomous Indian government body under the Ministry of Education, offering flexible secondary (10th) and senior secondary (12th) education through open schooling.
Instead of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. classrooms, fixed attendance, and one-size-fits-all pace, NIOS lets students actually own their learning. You study when it makes sense. You prepare for exams when you’re ready. You can tell the exam board, “I have a tournament in March, can I take my exam in phased approach?”, and they work with you.
For a young athlete, that’s not a luxury. That’s the difference between having a future in sport or giving it up.
And here’s the real kicker, open schooling doesn’t make kids careless rather makes them more responsible. When you’re managing your own time, you can’t blame the teacher or the school. You know exactly what you need to do, and you do it. That’s huge for a kid’s maturity.
Plus, you still get a board certificate. A 12th from NIOS is recognized everywhere, colleges accept it, employers accept it, it’s legitimate. Full stop.
IIL (Indian Institute of Learning) in Lucknow, this is where it gets real!
Okay, so open schooling sounds good on paper. But here’s the problem, if you just enrol and disappear, a kid can get lost. Especially a young athlete who’s juggling a lot.
That’s why having a real, experienced support system matters. IIL in Lucknow is an authorized NIOS centre. They’ve been doing this for over 20 years, and they actually know what they’re doing.
It’s not just a name on a board. These people understand the pressures a young sportsperson faces. They help you:
- Pick the right subjects so you’re not overloading yourself unnecessarily
- Create a study schedule that actually fits around practice and tournaments
- Clear your doubts and keep you on track without being pushy about it
When a parent knows someone is watching their academic side carefully, they can finally relax about it. And when a kid knows that their coach understands they’re also studying, and their teacher understands they’re also training, everything becomes easier.
That’s what IIL does. They bridge that gap.
SKOLA ONLINE taking it everywhere!
But not everyone is in Lucknow. Some kids are in smaller cities. Some are traveling constantly for tournaments. Some are training at academies few miles away.
SKOLA ONLINE is the answer, it’s IIL’s online extension. Think of it as bringing all that expert guidance right to your screen, anytime, anywhere.
Through SKOLA ONLINE, a young athlete can:
- Access study materials on their own time
- Ask doubts to people who actually understand the NIOS system
- Prepare for exams seriously, but without needing to physically sit somewhere for hours every day
A swimmer who trains at 5 a.m.? She can study on SKOLA ONLINE in the evening. A cricketer constantly traveling? He can keep up with his NIOS coursework from wherever he is. A gymnast with back-to-back training sessions? With Skola Online, she doesn’t have to choose between sport and education anymore.
That flexibility, that’s the whole point!
Let’s be honest about what’s at stake here
Every time a talented young player gives up their sport because school got too rigid, we lose something. Not just for them, for all of us.
We lose potential champions. We lose kids who learn discipline, teamwork, and perseverance on the field. We lose young people who know what it means to work toward something bigger than themselves.
And for what? Because the school timetable doesn’t bend?
That’s not okay.
Open Schooling and Flexible Learning, these aren’t shortcuts. They’re not a way to “get away” with less studying. They’re a way to study smart, on a schedule that actually works for a kid’s real life.
If you know a young player whose talent is obvious but whose school attendance record looks messy? The answer is not, “Why can’t you just manage both like everyone else?”
The real answer, here is a system built for you. It’s called NIOS. And there are people in Lucknow and online through SKOLA ONLINE who know exactly how to help you succeed in it.
That’s worth knowing Skola Online.
