Kochi: Minister for General Education and Labour V Sivankutty announced on Monday that no distinction will be made between general and sports schools in the Olympics-style state school sports meet, responding to a dispute that broke out at the event's closing ceremony.

Sivankutty stated that students from general schools, sports schools, sports divisions, the Sports Authority of India, and various sports academies are participating in the state school sports meet without any separate categories. In light of this unified approach, awarding prizes based on school type is no longer appropriate. According to the minister, the General Education Department's primary objective is to identify and foster young athletic talent. To support this goal, the earlier practice of categorizing competitions based on school types has been discontinued.

"With this unified approach, dividing schools into categories like sports schools and general schools is unnecessary," Sivankutty said. "Excellence in sports should be the focus, and creating further divisions could slow down progress in the sports sector." The department is hosting competitions across 39 sports, and in determining the overall championship, participants are not separated by school category. "Considering the scenario, it is not possible to bring in distinctions in athletics alone" he clarified.

Tensions escalated into a physical altercation at the closing ceremony due to disputes over point allocations. Students clashed with police, leading to shoving and pushing. Education Minister V Sivankutty and Sports Minister V Abdurahiman, who attended the ceremony, had to be escorted out by police due to the unrest.

In the competition’s school category, Kadakassery Ideal EHSS took first place with 80 points. According to the official point table, Navamukunda HSS Thirunnavaya and Kothamangalam Mar Basil ranked second and third with 44 and 43 points, respectively. However, the decision to award the second place to the sports school G V Raja instead led to widespread dissent.

Protests from students, parents, and teachers ensued, with claims that police threatened students. One student alleged, “The police told us, ‘If the media wasn’t here, we would show you what we can do.’” There were also allegations of police aggression.

"We’ve trained on the ground for over a year and a half, through rain and sun," a student said. "We’re not asking for charity; we’re demanding the trophy we worked hard to win. Even our coach and teammates were roughed up. Now they’re saying our team might be disqualified. What kind of rules are these?," asked the protesting students.