new delhi in a bid to encourage nurturing of sporting talent among school children the centre has come up with the concept of sports schools wherein students in the age group of 812 years can seek admission through the sports quota after a physical aptitude test once enrolled these sports students can avail of trainingcoaching in key sports disciplines while pursuing academicsto be funded by the ministry of youth affairs and sports the proposed initial selection of sporting talent instal programme seeks to take off with a pilot project under which one or two sports schools will come up in each stateunion territory to be implemented over three years the project will see starting of 35 sports schools in the first year followed by 20 schools each in the following two yearschildren with sporting potential can be admitted either to class iv or class vi according to the concept paper for instal prepared by the sports ministry the paper is formulated after a series of discussions among representatives of schools states and the sports ministry last monthto be eligible for instal likely to entail an expenditure of rs 2200 crore by the ministry over the next 10 years a school would need to have good facilities in about four to five sports disciplines these include boxing wrestling athleticsgymnastics taekwondo swimming table tennis badminton hockey football archery tennis shooting basketball and volleyball other selection criteria include good track record in national school games minimum area of 25 acres schools with sizeable sports spending and schools providing residential facility to a minimum of 100 male students100 female students at the rate of 25 boysgirls selected per annum for four years continuouslythe union home ministry realizing the schemes potential to wean away tribal youth from the influence of naxal ideology is pushing for such schools in maoistinfested districts disciplines like archery for which the tribals have a natural flair can be encouraged the contribution expected from each sports school includes vigorous sports training of the selected students for a minimum two and a half hours per day and providing them class rooms sports area boarding facility adequate nutrition and medical facilities they must ensure judicious mix of academics and sportsthe sports ministry will extend a grant to each sports school for further development of infrastructure besides paying rs 15 lakh per annum towards each sports students school fees and boardinglodging the ministry will also provide sports equipment worth rs 1 lakh per school per annum rs 2500 per student per annum for sports competitions and reimburse group insurance premium for the sports students it will also reimburse salaryhonorarium of five coaches per school at the rate of rs 30000 per coach per month