BENGALURU: The state government is planning to make sports education compulsory from Class 1 onwards from next academic year. However, close to 30,000 government and aided schools in the State still do not have the playgrounds.
During the ongoing Legislature Session, senior BJP leader and MLC Captain Ganesh Karnik sought reply from Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait regarding the number of schools in Karnataka which do not have playgrounds. In his reply, the minister said 29,154 schools do not have playgrounds.
This includes Lower Primary Schools (10,310), Higher Primary Schools (14,848), Secondary Schools (3879) and Higher Secondary (117).
“When nearly 30,000 schools do not have playgrounds, how can the government introduce compulsory sports education from class one. I am still waiting for a satisfactory answer,” he said.
Executive Director of Child Rights Trust Vasudeva Sharma, who also heads Karnataka Child Rights Observatory, says lack of space for playing for children in schools is a violation of basic child rights.
Department of Public Instruction officials gave permission to schools, which did not have playgrounds. “In some cases, the trust or organisation gave false information,” he said.
When Right to Education came in 2009, it was made mandatory to have playground, laboratory, library and other facilities in schools. An amendment was made in 2010-11 and now schools could run without playgrounds. Instead, they were allowed to use the public spaces in the neighbourhood.
Shortage of PE teachers
There is an acute shortage of physical education teachers across the state in government and aided schools.
“At present, there are 1,233 sanctioned posts of physical education teachers, of which 1,426 posts are vacant. Though we had issued notification to recruit teachers in 2014, some people went to court and the matter is sub-judice now. Hence, we are not able to recruit,” said sources from Department of Public Instruction.