No more couch potatoes: CBSE makes sports period mandatory for schools

To put an end to sedentary lifestyle of students, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday issued guidelines, making health education and physical education mandatory for the students of Class IX to XII.

"Health is often a state of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Hence, we have decided to mainstream health and physical education for Class IX to XII with the aim of preventing them from having a sedentary lifestyle or turn into couch potatoes," a senior CBSE official was quoted as saying by a news agency.

As per the new guidelines, students will have to attend the sports classes every day, and will have to go to the playground during the Health and Physical Education period but will be free to perform any physical activity listed in the handbook and will be graded on the same.

As per the 150-page guidelines, schools have the freedom to decide what kind of activities they would like to introduce during this period.

According to reports, the CBSE has made both Health and Physical Education mandatory for students to be eligible to appear for the Class X and XII board exams, but the marks will not be added in the final exams.

Earlier, the CBSE had asked all schools to keep one period for ‘Health and Physical Education (HPE)’ while preparing their time-table for the 2018-19 session. However, HPE will be different from Physical Education (PE) academic elective which is offered to Class X and XII students.

"Earlier, there used to be two co-scholastic areas — Health and Physical Education and Work Education. Now the two have been merged and the total periods allocated for the two will be used for HPE. This will ensure that schools are under no pressure of adjusting the time tables at the cost of academic subjects," the official said.

The official further added that the whole process of HPE will be school-based and will be evaluated and implemented by school teachers only.

"Every teacher including class teacher, teaching in CBSE affiliated schools will be eligible for implementing, evaluating and record keeping of HPE which will be completely practical and will not have any theory portion," the CBSE official said, adding, “The marks or grades will have to be submitted by schools on the CBSE website."

"The students will also have to do a project for which they can choose whether it will be an individual or group activity. From doing any cleanliness campaign to visiting a zoo, the project can be anything which involves an outdoor activity. Students will be graded for the pictures and other they material submit for the project," the official added.