Even as the 57th State School Arts Festival is drawing to a close, the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights is yet to hear from the government on recommendations submitted by it for the conduct of the event.
Though officials have spoken of taking steps to reduce the flood of appeals and disassociating grace marks from written examinations in the wake of the happenings in Kannur, there is no word on the recommendations.
“There has been no formal communication from the government on action taken,” says commission chairperson Shobha Koshy. The commission had submitted the first part of its report to the government in November 2015 after detailed consultations with stakeholders on safeguarding the rights of participants. Following the 56th school festival in December 2015-January 2016, where it had to look into 243 complaints across all levels of the competition, it handed over a second report in October 2016. The issues flagged by the commission then – grace marks, appeals, events stretching the entire night, lack of basic amenities, poor stage facilities – have taken the sheen off the latest festival.
The commission, apart from fora such as the High Court and the Lok Ayukta, has been hearing appeals from children till midnight. These range from errors in judgment and bias in assessment to faulty arrangements. “These result in elimination of a number of talents right from the lowest level of the festival,” Ms. Koshy said.
The commission has dealt with the impact of inadequate funding on organisation of the fete, roping in of judges, and inadequate stage facilities. The increasing number of events, delays on account of large number of appeals from the school level itself and the resultant stress on participants and judges, the neglect of literary and arts competition, and lack of a panel of competent judges prepared at the DPI level for all levels of the competition are all dealt with, Ms. Koshy says.
It moots reduction of grace marks by two-thirds and not clubbing it with academic performance, and an analysis of whether the fete does encourage the arts through the talents identified.
Its report also suggests segregating the fete into literary, music, and dance events and ensuring proper time gap between the contests, fixing a tenure for judges and blacklisting of erring judges, making the appeal process transparent, and fixing responsibility for shoddy work. “The festival is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talents of the students, but there is a need to relook at the reasons for the sorry state of affairs now,” Ms. Koshy says.
‘No level playing field’
Ms. Koshy points to the lack of a level playing field in the matter of participation and appeals owing to the urban-rural divide and financial situation of the contestants.
With the festival manual set for a revamp next month, it remains to be seen whether the government will act on the recommendations.
