Vijayawada: Most schools in the limits of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation lack playgrounds; the situation is so bad that some of the students haven’t had a leisure period in years. Of the 29 state-run schools in the city, 15 don’t have a playground.
Some schools do have a playground, but it is so small that there is no play and it remains a ground. The situation is worse when it comes to private, or aided schools.
On August 29, the district sports authority will organise the National Sports Day on a grand note, in response to the call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a ‘Fit India’.
Sportspersons, both active and retired, say that such celebrations, when the lack of playgrounds in schools is taken into account, appear ridiculous.
The Municipal Corporation run Govindarajulu Enam Trust School at Patamata, in which nearly 1,200 students study, does not have a playground. Similarly, there are no playgrounds at Valluri Sarojuinidevi High School, Patamatalanka and the SV Reddy High School at Krishnalanka.
Students of municipal corporation-run schools in I-Town like the Gandhiji High School Annapurna Devi High School, Padamati Sundaramma Girls High School and Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Urdu High School too don not have a place to play.
The situation in SNMCHS Urdu Girls high school, Mohamed Ali Puram High School, Vinchpet is the same. The students of SMA Khuddus Urdu High School in Bhavanipuram, DSMC High School at Vidyadharapuram face the same problem.
The BSRK MCH School, Mughalrajpuram, that has a strength of nearly 1,000 students, has space for only about 200 students to play. Similarly the playgrounds at STVRMCH school, Durgapuram and at RGMC High School at Rajiv Nagar are to small to make a difference.
The TMRC Corporation High School, Machavaram Down, Koutha Subbarao MCH School, Purnandampet and Puchalapalli Sundariah High School at Singhnagar too tell a similar tale.
There are a total of 3,157 government schools and 1,285 private and corporate schools in the district. Of these, nearly 85 per cent of Zilla and Mandal Parishad government schools have a place for students to play.
In urban areas, students of private and corporate schools never enter a playground for even one hour in entire academic year.
UTF city secretary Srinivasa Rao said that the governments, officials and people’s representatives change periodically but no one has worked to change the fate of the schools. “Students are facing problems their seniors had faced decades ago, like shortage of toilets, washrooms, classrooms and playgrounds,” Mr Srinivasa Rao said.
SFI district president N. Kotababu stated that the government should solve the playground problems before conducting rallies etc., He demanded the government make compulsory exercise and sports classes in all schools
