The Odisha government is planning to build playgrounds in 5,000 schools in the next three years. Samir Ranjan Dash, the School and Mass Education Minister, 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 the school development plan and it is one of the five components, the other four being smart classrooms, library, laboratory and ambience, under the 5T programme at School level,” Dash said.
The minister further emphasised how the hockey team’s performance in Tokyo has given incentive to the vision of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to promote sports from the school level. The state will be designing a curriculum with a focus on sports and physical education classes. Additionally, schools will identify young sports talents and support them.
The department has now published guidelines for the 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 for each academic year. The government has also launched a process for the enlistment of physical education teachers at the high school level. The finance department has accepted the proposal for the appointment of 4,445 PET, Hindi and Sanskrit teachers.
Odisha is gradually gaining a reputation in sports by building world-class sporting infrastructure and hosting global tournaments. The State is making good progress in its quest to become the sports capital of India.