Thiruvananthapuram: A recent order of the Kerala Government directing schools not to conduct classes in other subjects during periods set apart for extracurricular activities such as sports and arts cannot be implemented, say teachers.
The reason: Of the 13,583 schools following the state syllabus in Kerala, a mere 1,869 institutions (13.75 percent) have Physical Training (PT) teachers.
According to the curriculum, there should be two PT periods every week in Classes 1 and 2, three periods in Classes 3-7, two periods in Class 8, one period in Classes 9 and 10 and two periods in higher secondary (Plus One and Two/Classes 11 and 12).
Grim data
However, not even a single PT teacher has been appointed in any of the 6,518 lower-primary (LP - Classes 1-4) schools in Kerala. An identical situation exists in the 1,698 higher-secondary schools. No sports periods are included in the timetable of both LP and higher secondary classes as the number of teachers is a nought. As many as 12,13,121 students are enrolled in LP classes and 7,16,357 students attend higher-secondary classes in the state.
The situation is slightly better in upper primary (UP – Classes 5-7) and high school (HS – Classes 8-10). While there are 394 PT teachers for 10,92,658 UP students in 2,733 schools, 1,475 teachers impart training for 11,94,589 students in 2,634 high schools.
According to the rules, posts of PT teachers will not be sanctioned in UP schools which have less than 500 students.
“There are no PT periods in higher secondary classes for the simple reason that there are no teachers,” explained Jositt Mon Joseph, state president of the Kerala Private School Physical Education Teachers’ Association.
During the term of the previous government, PT teachers were appointed on contract basis in a few schools under the ‘Samagra Siksha Keralam’ project. However, complaints were raised by these teachers soon after that their emoluments were slashed and the payments were disrupted regularly. At present, the authorities have asked these PT teachers to reach schools only thrice a week to conduct classes.