Gurdaspur, March 19: With the state government set to discontinue funding of sports activities of government schools, the Education Department, in its endeavour to sustain its sports agenda, is sure to increase the monthly sports funds it collects from students.
Till now, the government used to provide money to the Education Department from the cess levied on liquor. However, with the government deciding to do away with this tax, the department will be left in the lurch and sports activities may suffer a setback in the event of discontinuation of grants.
A high-level meeting has been convened by Krishan Kumar, Secretary, School Education, on Monday in Chandigarh where the modalities to increase the sports fund levied on students will be worked out. The proceedings, among others, will be attended by Director (Sports) Amrit Kaur Gill, three-time hockey Olympian Pargat Singh and Director (Training), Punjab Institute of Sports, Sukhbir Singh Grewal.
At present, an amount of Rs 120 per year per students is collected from students of Class IX and X, while the same increases to Rs 144 for Class XI and XII students.
The proposal, which is likely to be discussed in the March 19 meeting, is to increase the money from Rs 120 to Rs 180 for Class IX and X students and from Rs 144 to Rs 240 for Class XI and XII students. “It is a well-known fact that children studying in government schools belong to lower strata of society. Asking them to dole out more money is not the right solution. After all both education and sports are state subjects and thus should be funded by the state government,” said Bikramdev Singh, state committee member of the Democratic Teachers Front.
Source Tribune India
