Bhubaneswar: After hosting a number of international and national tournaments, the Odisha government is all set to include sports in the school curriculum from the next academic year.
Plans are afoot to make sports mandatory in the school curriculum in the next phase and steps are being taken in this direction, sources said.
Apart from hosting many national and international tournaments, the state government is also supporting sports like hockey, kho-kho, rugby and swimming. With the hosting of mega hockey tournaments including the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Odisha, the state has been transformed into a hockey hob. The state capital of Bhubaneswar is also emerging as a major sports hub.
According to Sports Secretary R Vineel Krishna, the government has taken different initiatives like training of PETs, involving school students during different championships and grassroots programmes in the state.
The state government has have inked a pact with International Olympic Committee (IOC) under which around 1.5 lakh students from 250 schools are taking part in Olympic Value Education Programmes. “Our effort is to integrate sports into the school curriculum. We are planning to start the initiative from the next academic year,” he said.
The state government has taken other transformative initiatives under 5T for the development of sports in the state. The budget of the Sports department has increased manifold and it is currently around Rs 1300 crore which is the highest for any state in the country, said Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera.
While several projects with an expenditure amount of Rs 2,500 crore are currently under construction in the state, the government has also started many High-Performance Centers with the help of corporate houses for excellence of different sports events. As many as 17 astro turfs have been laid in Sundargarh which is popularly known as the nursery of hockey.
As many as 89 multi-purpose indoor stadiums have been built in different urban areas across the State. Odisha government has also developed as many as six FIFA standard pitches at different places.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated three football training centres in Bhubaneswar ahead of the upcoming Intercontinental Cup 2023.
