Playgrounds attached to schools cannot be used for commercial or non-academic purposes, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has said in a recent circular.
Rejecting a request made by a city-based charitable trust to construct a permanent dais for musical programmes at the Government Fort High School grounds in Chamarajpet, Commissioner for Public Instruction S R Umashankar said that permission will not be given “under any circumstance” for playgrounds and school premises to be used for commercial activities.
“Playgrounds must be used for extracurricular, physical education and academic work only. This office will not entertain any requests for usage of playgrounds for private, non-academic purposes,” Umashankar stated in the circular.
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) in December last year allowed schools without their own playgrounds to make use of adjoining playgrounds/municipal parks for children to play, as provision of playgrounds is one of the infrastructural requirements as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
Contravention
Sri Vinayaka School, whose premises shares a part of Bannappa Park on K G Road, is contemplating moving court over the “nuisance caused by anti-social elements” who park lorries and other vehicles right in front of the school which has 1,000 students from nursery to high school.
“We are facing severe problems as Bannappa Park plays host to a number of protests. Also, people who are not related to the school’s activities park lorries here. Recently, one of our students was hit by one such vehicle,” said C Vijayalakshmi, headmistress of the school which has implemented the RTE.
“We want to move court. We have made more than 200 representations to the BBMP about this issue. Is this how a municipal park is used? We have managed to ward off a proposal to construct a water tank here, but how can we stop protests and illegal parking of vehicles?” asked G S Chikkashankarappa of Sri Vinayaka Education Society.