BMC to set up sports schools at secondary level across city …Anahita Mukherji I TNN
Mumbai: Don’t be surprised if the country’s future cricketers, and maybe even hockey champs, are from the city’s municipal schools. In a possible first for any municipal corporation in India, the BMC plans to set up three residential sports schools for secondary students in Mumbai.
This will be the first residential sports school in Mumbai. In other parts of the country, state governments, private bodies and the army have set up similar schools. For instance, the Maharashtra government runs the Balewadi Krida Prabodhini in Pune which provides training in sports as well as academics for secondary school students while the Indian Army’s Bombay Engineering Group runs a sports school in Khadki, Pune. Private institutions such as St Joseph’s High School in Bangalore have also started sports hostels funded by the central government. The BMC will set up its sports schools on vacant municipal plots in Parel, Vikhroli and Dahisar.
“We hope to start the schools next year. These institutions will encourage municipal school children who excel in sports,’’ says Deputy Municipal Commissioner SS Shinde. These schools will provide both sports training as well as an education free of cost.
BMC students who excel in sports at the primary level will be selected for these residential secondary schools which will admit students from Stds V to X.
In a city with rapidly shrinking playgrounds where children have little space to run, mayor Shubha Raul feels that such schools are the need of the hour. “Many children from impoverished families are very good at sports and deserve an opportunity to excel,’’ says Raul.
Provisions for these sports schools were made in last year’s BMC budget. The municipal corporation is in the process of drawing up a plan for each school and has invited architects from across Mumbai to come up with proposals for the school construction.
The sports school at Vikhroli will be spread out across four civic plots. While one plot will be reserved for the school building, another will be for a hostel. Of the remaining plots, one will be for a playground, the other for games.