Selvan said that school children from a very young age are indulged in mobiles and later on in gadgets like laptops and other electronic gadgets.
In a bid to prevent school children from indulging in electronic gadgets including mobiles and incline them more towards sports, the state government is considering to declare one day as no gadget day every week in every school of the state, compulsorily. Minister for Education Vinod Tawde on Wednesday made an announcement in the state assembly to that effect.
He was responding to a calling attention motion moved by MLAs Tamil Selvan, Parag Alawani and Ashish Shelar which sought to make physical education marks compulsory while deciding whether a student had passed his or her exams.
Selvan said that school children from a very young age are indulged in mobiles and later on in gadgets like laptops and other electronic gadgets. He explained that this has led to a deterioration in the quality of physical fitness He complained that school children do not play on grounds and state assembly takes up issues of sports for discussion only during Olympics or any such sporting events. Selvan demanded that state Government should bring a legislation to make physical education compulsory in schools. He demanded appropriate changes in curriculum by Maharashtra State secondary and higher secondary board so that physical education gets its due importance.
Parag Alavani sought information as to whether all the schools have adequate number of sports teachers. He also raised the issue that in the name of physical education nominal aspects are covered and students are not exposed to physical education in the real sense.
Tawde while replying to the queries admitted that students are devoting more time to electronic gadgets. He said that the schedule of the lectures and the number of lectures to be devoted to a particular subject are decided by NCERT. He pointed out that after he became education minister he introduced a system whereby a student can avail 10 extra marks in final examinations for representing his or her school in school and state level. Students representing National level sports would get five per cent seats in government jobs. The no gadget day, he informed, is precisely for the purpose of getting the students back to the play grounds.
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