Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Combined youth fete in January

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Schools Youth Festival, a cultural extravaganza lasting nearly a week, will be kicked off by the Education Department in the State in January next year. It will have 10,500 contestants, 180 events and 540 judges.

The mega event is being introduced as a substitute for the existing school youth festivals that are currently being hosted by the directorates of various educational streams.

The proposed festival, for students from Class VIII to XII, will be organised jointly by the Directorates of Public Instruction, Higher Secondary Education and Vocational Higher Secondary Education. It will also integrate the relatively lesser known Arabic and Sanskrit festivals, now held at obscure locations, providing the participants a greater exposure.

“The event is expected to be on a par with the ongoing Beijing Olympics in terms of the number of participants,” Mohammed Haneesh, Director of Public Instruction (DPI), told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Mr. Haneesh discounted the logistical challenges involved in organising such an event. “The festival itself will be more exciting than any logistical challenge involved,” he said.

“Besides, we are counting on the large-heartedness of the local population when it comes to providing accommodation for the participants,” Mr. Haneesh said.

A 75-page manual that outlines the conduct of the combined youth festival was handed over to Education Minister M.A. Baby by Kalamandalam Vimala Menon and V.M. Kutty, doyen of Mappila folk song, on Tuesday following a two-day workshop that witnessed animated discussion on various aspects of the festival by a team of experts comprising artists, academics, representatives from various teachers’ unions and veteran festival organisers.

As per the manual, the number of judges for each event has been whittled down from five to three to avoid “confusion and variation in marking.” If there is a huge variation in the marks awarded by a particular judge, that mark will be excluded, the DPI said.

“There will also be different set of judges for male and female contestants to avoid fatigue.”

Some of the other reforms suggested include conducting Oppana, a traditional dance form of Muslims, sans the familiar coy bride or bridegroom and renaming the Oppana performed by male artistes as Vattappattu.

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