Chennai: From kho-kho and kabbadi, to volleyball, football and badminton, state board students are spending their after-school hours training to participate in zonal level contests from July 1 and craft a career in sports.School heads say that training this year has been vigorous and officials have asked them to keep an eye out for students who perform exceptionally. Two weeks ago, the school education department instructed schools to mandatorily conduct PE classes from Class VI onwards to increase students’ interest in sports.The contests, open to students of Classes VI-XII, will add points to their records, which can be used to apply to colleges under sports quota. Each district will be divided into multiple zones, depending on the number of schools in each block.Chief inspector of physical education Gopalakrishnan said that grounds and centres for more than 20 game in the contests have been prepared, and a schedule has been sent to all schools. “Chennai will have 24 zones, and Namakkal will have about eight. In total, there are more than 200 zones across the state, and a fund of ₹85,000 to ₹1,00,000 is spent on each zone to manage student and PE teacher travel and training expenses,” he added.“We are practicing cricket, football, kabbadi and volleyball, apart from indoor games such as chess and carrom, along with athletics. More than 200 students from our school will participate in the zonal competitions. Practices after school are monitored by two PE teachers, and we ensure that students safely reach home after,” said T Nakkeeran, headmaster, Govenrment Higher Secondary School, Kovalam. The school bagged more than ₹1 lakh in prize money in the Chief Minister’s Trophy last year.The winners of zonals will then compete in the district-level contests, from where state-level teams are selected. Winning students will be felicitated with medals, certificates and a cash award, and students performing exceptionally will be roped in to participate in national-level contests, said officials from the school education department.PE associations, however, said govt must also focus on schools that still do not have playgrounds to practice. “There is less space to play for students in city schools. These students lose out on outdoor games as they have to look for alternative places to practice. The department must take steps so that no student misses out on these contests,” said S Sankaraperumal, president, TN Physical Education Teachers and Physical Directors’ Association.
