Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

State Higher Secondary Youth Festival begins

Staff Reporter

M. Vijayakumar to inaugurate the festival formally today evening

READY TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE: Participants of the Thiruvathirakali competition at the 10th State Higher Secondary Youth Festival, which began in the city on Wednesday, getting ready for their performance. — Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 10th State Higher Secondary Youth Festival organised by the Department of Higher Secondary Education began on a rough note on Wednesday with parents and contestants from various districts gheraoing V. Karthikeyan Nair, Director of the department.

Tense situation prevailed at St. Mary's Higher Secondary School, Pattom, the venue of the festival, for nearly three hours in the morning, with parents and contestants from Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Palakkad, referred to the department by the respective district-level appeals committee demanding participation in the events.

According to N. Murukan, joint director, from this year onwards the department had decided to consider appeals only from courts. The decision was taken in consultation with various teachers' associations as it was found that there was a tendency to misuse the powers of the appeals committee. "As a result, most of the events got unduly delayed. In order to avoid this situation, from this year onwards we decided to consider appeals only from courts. However, there was a communication gap in conveying this message to the respective districts. This led to the confusion," he said.

The matter was finally solved with the department allowing the contestants referred to by the appeals committee to participate in the competition. Their results, however, will be published only in consultation with the State Government.

More than 3,500 selected contestants from 14 districts of the State will take part in the four-day event, which will conclude on Saturday. The competitions are held in 93 categories with one candidate each for an event from every district.

The festival will be inaugurated formally on Thursday evening by Minister for Law M. Vijayakumar. The function will also be attended by Mayor C. Jayan Babu, Varkala Radhakrishnan, MP, and Anathalavattom Anandan, V. Sivankutty, George Mercier, G. Karthikeyan, N. Rajan, V. Surendran Pillai and N. Sakthan, all MLAs.

Minister for Education M.A. Baby will give away prizes to the winners at the valedictory function. The function will be presided over by Pannian Ravindran, MP.

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