- Drill, physical exercises and athletic tournaments in schools should be organised in accordance with the instructions given below:-(1)Purely military drill is not suitable for schools. The system adopted should call into exertion all the muscles and limbs of the body. Smartness and promptness should be developed, and the boys should be led to take a pride in the efficiency of their class and school. The saluting of the flag during drill should be encouraged.(2)As a rule, boys should be required to practise open-air drill throughout the year. They may be exempted, however, when it is raining and there is insufficient protection from the weather, or when other conditions are so unfavourable as to make drill undesirable.(3)Boys who attend a gymnastic class will not be exempted from drill.(4)Drill may be taught at any time during school hours that may be found suitable by the Headmaster/Principal. Deep breathing exercises in the fresh air under sufficient guidance and with the due precautions may be introduced at any time between the school periods.(5)The duration of a drill period should be about half an hour.(6)Each boy should drill for at least two periods a week.(7)Drill and, where practicable, swimming are compulsory subjects for boys in schools of all grades recognised by the Department, those boys only being exempted from a course of instructions who are certified by competent authority to be physically unfit.(D.P.I.'s circular no. 9, dated the 16th February 1917 and Government resolution no. 3268-E., dated the 5th December 1923.)(8)In High/Higher Secondary schools the system followed should ordinarily be that prescribed in "A hand-book of physical activities" by A.G Noehren, M. D., but with the consent of the District Education Officer other systems may be taught by competent drill instructions It is no, necessary for the pupils to buy any drill book.(9)The clothing worn by the boys during drill should not be such as to hamper the free movement of the limbs. Every practicable facility should be afforded to boys to change their garments if these become wet with perspiration during drill. It is dangerous to health and altogether undesirable that the boys should sit in class in damp clothes.(10)The use of heavy dumb-bells is not desirable, and is attended with the risk of injury to the physique. Light dump-bells or clenched fists or short light rods suffice for the school exercises. Anything above one pound to two pounds (for each dumb-bell) in weight is too heavy for the purpose of growing boys.(11)In primary school deshi kasrat should be practised. Careful attention should be given to the subject.(12)Indigenous games were formerly much practised in schools and should be encouraged as far as possible. Many boys at schools which have not the means to procure the necessary materials for football or hockey now remain without any games or exercise at all. This is not desirable and inspecting officers should impress upon the teachers in-charge of the schools which they visit that a competent and conscientious teacher will encourage and organise healthy games among his pupils, and that haddudu or kabaddi and similar indigenous games are excellent for boys.(13)Where there is sufficient playground accommodation, attendance at school games is compulsory for all boys, except such as are specially exempted by the headmaster on the ground of physical unfitness or residence at a long distance from the school.(Government resolution no. 3268-E., dated the 5th December 1923,)(14)Except with the permission of the District Education Officer, no team from a school recognised by the Department should enter for any tournament unless all the other teams entering for that tournament also represent institutions under the control of the Department.(D. P. I.'s circular no. 29, dated the 7th May 1915.)(15)In all tournaments in which teams from schools recognised by the Department take part, arrangements should be made, as far as possible, for the preliminary rounds to be played away from the headquarters of the tournament. The only matches to be played at headquarters should be the final excepting preliminary rounds between any schools actually situated at the headquarters.(16)No team from a school recognised by the Department should be allowed to go away for a match unless it is accompanied by a member of the school staff, who should be entrusted with the duty of looking after it. If it is necessary for the team to remain away for a night it should be ascertained in advance that proper arrangements have been made for its accommodation.(17)Combined tournaments in which games of several kinds are played should be discouraged as involving elaborate organisation and excessive expenditure of time.(18)Efforts should be made to establish and favour annual engagements between sets of two or three schools of the same status rather than tournaments of larger size.(19)District Education Officers are authorised to sanction in all schools the inclusion of two hours for games within the number of hours prescribed weekly for school work, if they are satisfied that proper arrangements can be made for supervised games during those hours.(G. O. no. 1472-E., dated the 14th May 1917.)
