Of 33,000, over 5,000 primary schools don’t have a playground, says govt data

Another 37 grant-in-aid and 509 private primary schools lacked a playground within the campus.

Further, as many as 231 posts of physical education teachers remained vacant in grant-in-aid secondary and higher secondary schools in the state as of March 31, 2023.

The data tabled in the legislative Assembly on Monday revealed that 174 of the total posts were lying vacant in secondary grant-in-aid schools and 57 in the higher secondary schools against 602 and 549 posts that were filled, respectively.

As per the data, Dahod tops the districts with the highest number of 541 primary schools. Of these, 518 government and 23 private schools are without a playground.

The district is followed by Banaskantha (444), Bharuch (364), Bhavnagar (361) and Tapi (334).

The data further revealed that in the past three years, no playground was developed in a single private secondary and higher secondary school and only 16 government secondary and higher secondary schools were added with a playground within this period.

In 2018, the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) passed a Government Resolution (GR) stating that no permission for a new private secondary and higher secondary school in a rural or urban area will be given to management or trustees without provision of a playground within the same campus.

From its existing rule of ‘renting’ changed to ‘ownership’ of the playground, the resolution was a fallout of several anomalies by private schools in school buildings and playgrounds pointed out to the department. However, in September 2019, the Education Department revised rules for setting up a new school after a sharp decline in the number of new schools approved in 2019-20.

According to the earlier 2018 notification that was revised later in 2019, applicants were required to have their own space for a playground within the same campus that was relaxed to allow a rented space adjoining the school with a condition of a registered rent agreement for 15 years.

Further, the minimum playground size condition was changed from 1,200 square metres to 800 square metres in the urban areas, while in the rural areas, it was reduced from 2000 square metres to 1500 square metres.