Hubballi: Sports meets for primary and high school students, typically held in July, are yet to be scheduled this year. The delay is reportedly due to a transition from class-wise to age-wise grouping of students. Teachers and students are anxious, as education department has not issued the required circular, and officials are allegedly dragging their feet in implementing the new system.Many PE teachers in Dharwad dist said that every year, cluster-level sports meets used to be held in the first week of July, and taluk-level sports meets used to conclude by July-end. “However, sports meets are launched in some districts like Gadag. This apathy prevails across the state,” they rued.Dr Basavaraj Dharwad, who was a member of LR Vaidyanathan expert committee on physical education, yoga and sport for govt of Karnataka, said that physical education became compulsory in 2007, and negligence towards it is not acceptable. “Many researches have proved that sports are a must to maintain physical and mental health, and it is a good life skill,” he noted.Girish Naik, from Karnataka state govt grade-1 PE Teachers’ asociation, said that the dept has decided to hold sports meets in age-wise groups instead of class-wise groups. “PE teachers were told to fill up formats in U-14 and U-17 groups. The data is being uploaded on student achievement tracking system (SATS) software. It is almost ready, and the office of the commissioner of public instruction (CPI) is expected to dispatch a circular within 1-2 days,” he asserted.Dharwad DDPI SS Keladimath said that the sports meet schedule is issued as per the direction of CPI office. “We are unaware of the delay but are following instructions of the higher officials,” he stated.
