CUTTACK: Non-recruitment of physical education teachers (PET) and lack of playground facilities in several high schools across Cuttack district have emerged as a major hurdle, hindering students’ participation in sports and health activities.
Of the total 507 high schools across the district, PET posts in around 115 of them have been lying vacant for the last almost four years. This includes 71 government, 20 government-aided and 24 newly taken over schools in the district.
While the government is yet to take steps towards filling up the vacant PET posts, the situation has been depriving students of quality physical education for years. Similarly, sports infrastructure is also in total disarray in majority of the high schools hampering students’ access to quality sporting facilities. Sources said around 300 schools in the district do not have a playground.
In such a situation, students are left with no other option than to play in the school verandah or in small open spaces on the school premises. Sports competitions in such schools are mostly organised in open spaces in their respective localities.
With no proper training on physical education and lack of sporting facilities, students of such schools remain unskilled or lag behind regarding physical activities in comparison to their counterparts in private and public schools.
District education officer Santosh Kumar Rout, however, said the government is taking steps to fill up the vacant PET posts soon. “We are also trying to utilise the vacant government lands in rural pockets towards building playgrounds for schools that lack them,” he added.