Cultural curriculum to come up in schools

CHENNAI: In a first, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to introduce a separate common curriculum to regularise cultural activities in schools, to highlight childrens’ talents in various fields.

The new syllabus, which will have the five art forms - music, dance, visual art, folk art, and theatre, will be introduced for classes 6-9.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that the curriculum, to be prepared with the help of experts, will cover all aspects of the five art forms. “After preparing the syllabus, the schools will identify trainers for the students,” he added.

Stating that the curriculum would be common for all schools, he said the management should allow students to select any two art forms. “The management will identify students who are keen on cultural activities,” he said.

“Each school should allocate two class periods in a week for training. A teacher would also be appointed for monitoring the cultural training programme. Teachers in-charge will also have to allocate a separate classroom or place for cultural activities in each school,” the official said.

Pointing out that all musical instruments and equipment required for training will be provided to each school as per requirement, the official said, “Funds for the cultural equipment will be allocated by the district school education authorities.”

“Priority will be given to Tamil Nadu’s traditional cultural forms including mayilattam, bommalattam, udukai, parai, barathanattiyam and staging dramas. Apart from traditional cultural training, interested students will also be taught photography and making short films besides drawing and clay artworks,” he said.

The official also said that teachers would ensure that regular classes don’t affect students due to the cultural activities. “Timetable will be prepared accordingly,” he added. “Once everything gets streamlined, inter-school cultural competitions will be organised. Best performing students will be given chance to participate in the state-level programmes,” he said.

The management should allow students to select any two art forms and be trained accordingly