When school playgrounds are kept off limit to students for serving coterie interests

Two reports on the use, better say abuse, of school fields carried in two contemporaries ---one Bangla and another English ---are a poor commentary not only on the concept of educational environment but also of the extra-curricular activities that complement education. One report maintains that weekly haat (market) of vegetables sits twice a week on Sunday and Thursday on the common playground of Bhandarpur Dwimukhi Ucha Bidyalaya (bilateral high school) and Bhandarpur Government Primary School in Badalgachhi under Naogaon District located in the country's north. The other news comes from the south of the country, Barguna District to be precise. Sharikkhali Government Primary School in Amtali under the district has a playground but it has allegedly been fenced by the head teacher of the school to keep it off limit to students and local children for playing games during recession and after school. The reporter is particular about mentioning that cricket and football were regularly played on the playground until the head teacher reserved it for lush growth of grass.
Use of school fields for purposes other than for which they are meant is reported from across the country but hardly has any such regular use elsewhere interfered with the proceedings of school as it has done in the two Bhandarpur schools. On the haat days, students have to struggle to make their way into classes and out of the school on account of the crowd. The commotion of haat, deafening in peak hours, evidently creates a hostile atmosphere for holding classes smoothly and peacefully.
What is bewildering is that teachers have brought this to the local government's notice without remedy. The fact that there is reportedly a designated place for the haat but the lessee's attitude smacks of total nonchalance as he tries to establish his rights to the playground for the haat. As if the Tk4,100,000 he paid for receiving the lease grants him the right to make use of the field as a venue for the haat during school time! In this context, the reply from the UNO of the Badalgacchi Upazila to a question of the reporter is sure to surprise everyone except the vested quarters. She remarks that if a haat sits anywhere, it is considered a haat and this haat has been sitting there for long. However, she admits that the haat can be shifted if people of the locality want so. Pray, who these people are supposed to be---teachers, students and guardians or the lessee and his henchmen?
That there is a designated location for the haat and in its present arrangement, it is hampering and even vitiating the academic atmosphere of the two schools is none of her concern. The upazila secondary education officer who joined there recently, however, paid a visit to the schools and readily admits that the haat causes grave disturbance to the academic atmosphere there. Let this be noted that it is students who have inalienable right to school playgrounds and no commercial interests must undermine it.
In case of the primary school at Sharikkhali, the head teacher's move to allow lush growth of grass on the playground looks rather innocent compared to the Badalgachhi schools until the purpose is made public. The head teacher has done so with the ulterior motive of turning the playground into a pasture for his brother's cattle. How outrageous!
In both cases, insensitivity displayed to the need for healthy development of body and mind of students has been at its worst. For personal or coterie interests, the basic principle of education has been shown the utmost disregard. The head teacher of Sharikkhali school made a vain attempt to distract attention by saying that the annual examination is near and where is the time for students to play games? How pretentious and what an excuse!
If the heads of an educational institution and a upazila harbour such a notion about functioning of a school and students' mental and physical developments, they need relearning of their jobs or should not be holding the positions they now do. Let the higher authorities impress upon them that their mental space and what they have done cannot be approved and must make amend for their mistakes and misdeeds.

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