Kozhikode: The much-awaited Kerala School Kalolsavam kick-started on Tuesday after a gap of two years. The last State School Arts Festival was stopped short in 2019 with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan officially inaugurated the festival in Kozhikode at 10 am on Tuesday.

General Education Director K Jeevan Babu hoisted the flag for the arts fest at 8.30 am at Vikram Maidan, West Hill, the main venue for the festival. Education Minister Sivankutty presided over the inauguration.

In his speech at the event, the Chief Minister said the festival should be a stage for enjoying and encouraging the diverse art forms in the state and the country, irrespective of their religious or caste background.

"This festival is a stage for participants to show their talents and entertain each other and those present in the audience, irrespective of their religion or caste. Art is beyond any religion or caste.

"Therefore, that is how the festival should be enjoyed and seen by everyone in order to ensure unity in the state. Then only, we can ensure that Kerala continues to be a centre of peace, happiness and secularism," Vijayan said.

"Participation in itself is a major achievement and this mindset should be inculcated in the students and parents too should adopt it," he added.

Vijayan also said that the government was duty-bound to ensure social security of children and a major step in that direction was the massive statewide anti-drug campaign launched by his administration.

He also reminded everyone that in many countries across the world there was a surge in COVID-19 infections due to a new variant of the virus which was highly contagious.

"In such a situation, we may not be able to prevent the infection from reaching here. Therefore, covid-19 related precautions that we were following in the past should be continued," he said.

Over the next five days, the venue in Kozhikode will see school students compete against each other in a variety of events including dance forms and music.

As many as 14,000 students will participate in 239 events scheduled across the 24 stages in Kozhikode to help their respective district lift the coveted gold trophy.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty informed that the new criterion for allotting grace marks to those who excel is to be effected from next year. This time, grace marks would be allotted as per the criteria followed before COVID-19.

School Kalolsavam which was started in 1956 has been a popular platform to showcase talents of the students. Several prize-winning students later went on to make a mark as artistes, actors, singers, musicians etc. 

Meanwhile, the district police said they have made extensive arrangements to ensure safety and security of the students arriving there for the event.

Deployment of sniffer dogs and plainclothes officers as well as putting in place screening infrastructure are the steps taken by police to prevent any drug-related activities during the festival or at the places where outstation students would be staying, a senior police officer of the district told the media.

Manorama honour for talented student writers 

Manorama’s ‘Ente Malayalam’ gold medal would be awarded to students exhibiting excellence in the language. 

Two students selected by an expert committee from the prize winners in Malayalam poetry, story and essay writing competitions in the School Kalolsavam would be awarded the gold medal. One student each would be selected from the High School and Higher Secondary School sections. The aim is to identify talents from the new generation who exude brilliance in language and literature. The winners would be announced during the closing ceremony of the Kalolsavam.

(With PTI inputs.)