One of the most important lessons of the pandemic is to ensure good health and fitness. Yet, school teachers of physical education are struggling to get due importance. Even as their demand to make it a core subject remains pending, they are now wondering about its fake as schools have been closed throughout the academic year.

Physical education is a graded subject for board examination and requires each student to appear for a written and practical exam. While schools in Mumbai and surrounding districts have remained closed, in other parts of the state, those that reopened shut down amid increasing COVID cases. Subjects teachers are complaining that since it is a graded subject, it is not a priority and as such is shrouded by confusion.