The Kerala State Education Minister, C Raveendranath on Tuesday informed that instead of Onam and Christmas examinations, schools across the state will be conducting a single half-yearly examination, details of which will be announced later.
According to reports by manoramaonline, the decision as to when the half yearly examinations will be conducted will be decided by the Quality Improvement Program (QIP) committee.
It has been reported that all the arts, science and sports festivals in schools will be conducted on a small scale without much expense. All of this will be conducted in such a way that the students will be able to win awards in state and national level competitions. Further details will be decided during a committee meeting on September 17.
According to reports, a few changes will also be made to the Kalolsavam (arts festival) manual, so that the event can be held on a much smaller scale. It was initially decided that Alappuzha was going to host the festival but after the floods, there is a need to check the available venues where the festival can be organised. It has not been decided whether it will be held in Thiruvananthapuram or not.
Manoramaonline reports that different school festivals have different manual committees and that following the Education Minister’s orders, all the school manual committees will have a meeting with the minister.
The Kerala Government had earlier this month announced that all celebrations organised using government funds, including the School Kalolsavam (arts festival), International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) and all celebrations organised by the Tourist Department, will be cancelled for a year.
It was also mentioned that the funds that were allocated for all these celebrations will be donated to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
This decision had not gone down well with various ministers from within the party as well as the opposition, with many of them saying that instead of cancelling these functions, it is better to organise them on a smaller scale.