HITO serves 1-week deadline to govt for appointment of PET in schools, colleges

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 6, 2021

The Hynñiewtrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) on Wednesday served a one week ultimatum to the state government to appoint physical education teachers (PETs) in both government and private schools.

The demand came after information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 revealed that there are only four PETs in government schools of the over 14,694 schools of different categories in the state.

The organization has also threatened to approach the Ministry of Sports for its intervention and necessary action in this regard.

Speaking to media persons, HITO president Donbok Dkhar said the state, through its notification on 12 December 2019, emphasized that sports and physical education subjects should be counted as compulsory subjects by giving marks for sports in schools and colleges.

“However, RTI replies contradict the notification as the MBOSE syllabus till date does not include PE as a compulsory subject,” said Dkhar.

Dkhar said that the chief minister during his Independence Day statement had stressed the need to provide support towards athletes and sports in order to produce athletes for the Paris Olympic 2024 but the RTI report indicates that till date there are only four schools in the state which have PET teachers even though two teachers are not eligible for the post. He added the four schools in the state which include Physical Education (PE) as main subjects included Shillong Public School, Tura Public School, Pine Mont and Jowai Public School.

“The RTI report is quite shocking as out of the four PE Teachers who are currently teaching PE in these four schools, only two have the required qualifications despite the fact that there are more than 200 of them who are graduates and have also completed their Masters/PhD in the subject” he added.

Meanwhile Wanbun Dkhar said that prime minister Narendra Modi from time to time has emphasized on the important of physical fitness and has initiated the fit India movement, international yoga day and the landmark national education policy (NEP) which emphasize on the need for scientific physical fitness programmes and criteria to motivate and encourage school going children but it seems that the state government is contradicting even with the Right to Education (RTE) Act which emphasizes playground for each school, part-time instructors for physical education in upper primary schools and supply of play materials, games and sports equipment to schools in the state.

He added that HITO demand from the state government and education department to review and issue necessary advisory to the concerned officials in the education department, sports department and to the sports associations of Meghalaya to enforce the directives of the Meghalaya Sports Policy and Youth Policy implemented by the state government so that the joint efforts to produce champions by 2024 or 2028 is not hampered by the lack of implementation of the policies.