ahmedabad while the london olympics igniting the sporting spirit in children the world over about 70 of schools in ahmedabad do not have a playground what is worse those that do are selling their playing fields for builders to convert into commercial buildings the city has about 850 primary and 750 secondary and higher secondary schools registered under the district education office deo according to deos official data about 32 500 schools did not have a playground when they sought permission to be set up these schools were given permission after they told the deo they would rent nearby playgrounds bhaskar patel executive board member of gshseb and president of ahmedabad city school management association said that at present about 70 of schools do not have playgrounds officials say that several schools may have either ended their leases for playgrounds or sold them out of 32690 state governmentrun primary schools in gujarat about 3789 do not have a playground of 8000 privately run primary schools in the state about 5500 are without playgrounds gshseb has 12592 registered secondary and higher secondary schools of which 6588 have their own grounds while the remainder have leased them however the board recorded this data when the schools were being set up according to officials several school properties in ahmedabad are being sold for redevelopment in a city where shopping complexes are preferred to schools students are losing their right to physical fitness because of the lack of space compared to the cities about 70 of rural schools of gujarat have playgrounds as land is more easily available gujarat secondary and higher secondary education board gshseb has made it mandatory for every school to have a playground earlier schools in the state were given permission only if they had at least 4000 square metres of open ground in 2011 gshseb announced that new schools in cities across the state should have 1200 square metres and those situated in rural areas should have 2000 square metres of open space r i patel deo ahmedabad said commercial complexes have been built on school playgrounds or open spaces natraj high school in odhav sold its ground to a newly constructed residential scheme while the school still functions on part of the compound similarly 48 flats have been sold as part of a scheme that has been built on the playground of shri mirambika school in naranpura according to the deo the school had shown the playground as part of its premises when it was being set up 15 years ago balkrishna high school in bapunagar gave the ground floor of the school building to shops and moved the school to the first floor these schools are among those that had shown playgrounds as part of their premises when being established in order to get permission r r vasani chairman of gshseb said strict supervision is needed to check the actual number of schools with playgroundsselling out and shutting shop several schools in the city have been demolished