Mangaluru: Karnataka State Higher Educational Council has approved a proposal to introduce physical education as one of the optional subjects for students of under-graduate courses in Karnataka. The Council is in touch with the state universities and through the universities with respective colleges to start this subject as an optional subjects, noted R V Deshpande, minister for higher education and tourism. The Council has already initiated the process in this regard, he noted.

Inaugurating the annual convention of Association of Mangalore University College Teachers’ on Sunday, Deshpande said this is as per the sports policy that the higher education department wants to implement in the state. Noting that most colleges do not have infrastructure required to promote sporting activities among their students, Deshpande said, “It is imperative for students to maintain good health alongside going about acquiring knowledge in their student days.”

The sports policy will focus on health of the students, and goad them to be active in sports as well, he said. Incidentally, barring Alva’s College in Moodbidri, no other college under Mangalore University offers physical education as an optional subject for their degree students. St Aloysius College which offered physical education as one such optional subject discontinued the same nearly a decade ago, due to lack of sufficient number of students opting for it.

On the issue of extension in grant in aid to degree colleges that were brought under the grant in aid code from 1987 to 1995, Deshpande said the higher education department has made a strong recommendation for the same. Noting that the issue is before the finance department, Deshpande said the issue will come before the cabinet for approval once the finance department clears it, adding that while sympathetic to their cause, he has no powers to approve the same.

Likewise, the state government has also taken steps to usher in an education policy for the state on lines with a national education policy that is being chalked out by the union government. Noting that the union HRD minister Smriti Irani chaired a meeting of higher education ministers of all states in this regard in New Delhi of Saturday, Deshpande said the Knowledge Commission in the state has been tasked with bringing out education policy for the state as well.