BENGALURU, Karnataka: Aiming to improve the education sector, Karnataka became the first state in the country to implement National Education Policy 2020. The New Education Policy aims to give impetus to sports and physical education by adding them to the school curriculum. However, it has been observed that over 24,000 primary and high schools in Karnataka do not even have playgrounds.
Even though physical education is an important part of children’s learning process, thousands of children are deprived of this, thus hindering their intellectual development. There are around 69,941 schools in the state of which 53,239 are primary schools and 16,122 high schools, including government schools, government-aided and private schools. Out of these, 24,332 schools do not have playgrounds on their premises. More than 60 per cent of these schools lie in urban areas of Karnataka.
As per the norms, a school should have atleast 5 acres of land to build a playground facility, and most schools don’t have adequate land to serve this purpose. Similarly, sports and physical education are mandatory as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act (RTE) as well. The Act mandates that a school should have eight physical facilities, one of which is a playground.
Steps have been taken to provide indoor sports facilities in schools that don’t have playgrounds. Apart from that, students participating in sports events at various levels could use nearby taluk, district stadiums, and municipal grounds. Construction of these facilities is mandatory for the new schools, but the problem lies with the schools constructed a long time back.
Dr R Vishal, Commissioner, Education Department, also said that playgrounds of nearby schools, urban local bodies and village grounds are being used for sports and physical education of the children.