Children denied playing facilities at school

Children of most of the government primary schools in Pirojpur are deprived of sports and recreation facilities due to lack of sufficient playgrounds or open spaces.

“We do not get any chance of playing before or after school hours as there is no playground in our school,” said Shakib, a Class V student at Mukterkathi Government Primary School in Pirojpur Sadar municipality.

Like Shakib, most of the primary school kids pass their leisure playing indoor games like Ludu or Carom as the do not have outdoor games facilities in schools due to absence of fields.

“We come here about half an hour before the class starts, but we cannot go for any outdoor games as instead of a playground there is a pond in front of our schoolhouse,” said Class V student Swarna of the same institution.

“After completing schooling around 4:00pm we do not get enough time for playing as we have to attend coaching classes after school hours,” said Shompa Mondal, a Class IV student at Panchpara Government Primary School in Sadar upazila. 

“Due to the construction of a building in the school premises there is no space left for the children's playground,” said Humayun Kabir, assistant teacher of Mukterkathi Government Primary School.

Humayun said students of the school have to take part in different sports competition without proper practice as they do not have any playground.

According to the government law, 33 decimals of land is a must for establishing a primary school in rural areas while in municipality areas it is 20 decimals, said Abdul Latif Majumder, district primary education officer (DPEO) in Pirojpur.

Prior to 1990, there was no separate ministry for primary education, consequently there was none to monitor or guide the sector, said the DPEO.

The DPEO said well-off people used to donate their personal lands for establishing educational institutions without maintaining proper documents.

After their deaths and considering the growing value of the donated lands, their relatives took back most of the lands by claiming ownership due to the fault in papers, the DPEO added.