ITANAGAR, Aug 5: A group of 32, comprising district sports officers, physical education trainers, coaches and instructors from different districts, institutions and schools underwent a training of trainers (ToT) programme organized under Khelo India’s ‘fitness assessment programme’ in Shillong, Meghalaya, on 1 August, informed Khelo India’s Arunachal mission director Karbia Dodum.
The training for Meghalaya and Arunachal was held in Shillong, while another
ToT programme was also held in Guwahati, Assam.
“The trainees will later act as master trainers in their respective districts, schools and institutions, and impart training to other PETs or teachers to assess the fitness levels of the schoolchildren and identify sporting talents,” Dodum said.
The national ToT programme is one of the 12 verticals of the Khelo India programme, and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is the nodal implementing agency of the component.
“Through this programme, the government is making an effort to implement a component of physical fitness across all the schools in India. The national physical fitness parameters will be evolved region-wise and a toolkit (mobile app) will be provided to each school to evaluate the physical fitness of all schoolchildren. The data will be uploaded on the portal, so that the government of India can easily access the outcome of this programme throughout the country,” Dodum said.
He said it is expected that by the end of this year, “near about 30 crore schoolchildren’s physical assessment will be done by subject experts.
“Further, after assessing the level of fitness among the schoolchildren in the country, a component for enhancing the fitness levels of the children will also be undertaken. A grading system for schools will also be developed to encourage competition among school boards, state, NGOs and corporate to promote fitness,” Dodum said.
Meanwhile, the mission director of Khelo India attended the ToT programme which was held at the SAI’s regional centre in Guwahati on 30 July, and discussed with the SAI’s Guwahati regional director Subhash Basumotary various schemes to be taken up under Khelo India.
Assam will host the Khelo India Youth Games 2019-20 at Guwahati from 18 to 30 January next year.
