All work and no play for Jacks in city schools

Basic infrastructure in a deplorable condition
It is surprising to see playgrounds in a deplorable state in majority of the 105 government schools in the city; only a handful of model schools in the heart of the city are somewhat better placed. For months,the playgrounds are not pruned,and so,unusable. And now,with the monsoon,they are covered with tall,wild grass.

Fresh lines and marks have not been drawn on the playgrounds for years now. Marking of government school playgrounds had been made mandatory vide an order in 2008 by the then Director Public Instructions (schools) S K Sethia; but it was never implemented. Volleyball,basketball,tennis,grounds not only lack markings but also poles,nets and other equipment.

Not a single school has a professional coach,which was earlier made available for the students from the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) funds. “Since the PTA was dissolved more than two years ago,there is no fund or initiative left for the coaches now. In such a condition,students who are good in sports or want to pursue sports as career are forced to join private sports academies mushrooming in the city,which charge exorbitant fee,” said the principal of a government school,quite well known for its achievements in various inter-school competitions.

No scarcity of funds,yet no utilisation
Huge,unutilised sports funds,which are collected from each student as part of their fee,continue to get accumulated in the school account books only. Some of the government schools have accumulated amounts worth lakhs in these funds,as these have not been utilised for many years. Not only are the schools authorised to use sports fund,they have equal authority to use the amalgamated fund for the purpose.

While a school head can spend as much as Rs 25,000 from any of the sports or amalgamated funds at one time on the purchase of sports equipment without taking permission from the Education department,hardly any school head is aware of this facility.

“We have around Rs 8 lakh in the sports fund,which keeps on increasing every year as the school has not spent even a single penny on sports in the last two years. We do not have any directions from the Education department as to how much money we can spend on the sports equipment,” said the head of a government school.

Also,the schools that have sports equipment,keep them in sports rooms under lock and key. “A lot of students from my class have joined a private cricket academy,as we do not have either a cricket kit or a coach in our school. Though the private sports academies are very expensive,a lot of students like me want to pursue this as a career,and so,we are forced to join these academies,” said a student of Class VIII of a government model school.

Officialspeak
Accepting the poor state of sports in the government schools,Secretary (Education) Ram Niwas said: “It is true that the government school playgrounds and other infrastructure require an immediate action plan. Based on the requirements,the department has already decided to purchase some sports equipment soon.”

No report yet by officials on ‘sports tour’
Recently,some senior officials from the Education department went for a trip to Manali in June to study sporting facilities and equipment. These included Registrar (Education) Arjun Dev,AC (F and A) Jatana and District Education Officer Chanchal Singh. But even after three months,no report has been submitted by the officials who went on the tour. “Since it was just an official trip to study sporting facilities and equipment,no report is required to be submitted,” said DEO Chanchal Singh.