Odisha to develop 5,000 school playgrounds in next three years

BHUBANESWAR:  The Odisha government plans to construct playgrounds in 5,000 schools in the next three years. Congratulating the Indian men’s hockey team on its historic win at Tokyo Olympics, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash, said playgrounds will be developed in 1,000 schools this year under the State government’s 5T initiative and the rest would come up in a phased manner within three years.

“To encourage sports and physical fitness among youths, development of playgrounds has been kept as an integral part of school development plan and it is one of the five components, the other four being smart classrooms, library, laboratory and ambiance, under the 5T programme at School level,” Dash said. Stating that the hockey team’s performance at Tokyo has given further impetus to the vision of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to promote sports from the school-level, the Minister said that from now on curriculum will be designed with focus on sports and physical education classes. Besides, schools will identify young sports talents.

The department has already issued guidelines for allocation of sports grants of Rs 5,000 to primary schools, Rs 10,000 to upper primary schools and Rs 25,000 to secondary and senior secondary schools every academic year.  

He said the government has also initiated a process for recruitment of physical education teachers at high school-level. The Finance department has approved the proposal for appointment of 4,445 PET, Hindi and Sanskrit teachers.