the goan I network
PANAJI
Despite the issuance of a circular by the Directorate of Education (DoE) to join the Fit India Plogging Run, educational institutes upto the higher secondary level shied away from the exercise on
Wednesday.
Almost all primary sections, high schools, higher secondaries and special schools contacted by The Goan, both in North and South Goa, said that students had not been asked to come to school and “plog”, and had instead been given a holiday.
However, no head of institution/teacher was willing to come on record to state the same for obvious reasons.
The only institute that claimed that they had made their 450 students plog was the Vidya Prabhodini Higher Secondary School in Porvorim. North Goa MP Shripad Naik was present at their event.
The NCC units of some institutes were also seen participating in the event.
The DoE’s circular mandated that schools had to upload pictures, videos and details of the plogging on the Fit India website. It is learnt some of the institutes asked their students to plog for photo ops on October 1 and some have asked their students to do the same on October 3.
The Director of Education Vandana Rao IAS had sent the circular to heads of all government, government-aided, unaided, primary, middle, secondary, higher secondary and special schools in the state.
The DoE had attached a list of nine guidelines, and a list of eleven ‘to-dos’ for the organisers. The plog run had to be for a minimum two kilometers.
Plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up litter. It started as an organised activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking.
