Classes begin on a colourful note in schools in Kozhikode
The Hindu
Children perform Oppana, Duff Muttu, Kolkkali, and Kalarippayattu
Premises decorated with colourful balloons and ribbons. Children performing Oppana, Duff Muttu, Kolkkali, and Kalarippayattu. Teachers offering sweets to new students. These were some of the scenes from Government Lower Primary School at Kacherikkunnu near Mankavu in the city where district-level ‘Pravesanotsavam’, the event to mark the first day of the new academic year, was held on Wednesday.
Opening the event online, Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas said that teachers should try to impart knowledge from beyond the classrooms. “Play, laughter, reading and keen observation of things around us are also part of learning,” he added. Minister for Ports Ahammed Devarkovil presided over the event. Similar events were held at Assembly-constituency levels too. Pravesanotsavam is being held after the pandemic-induced gap of two years.
A total of 86,498 students have newly taken admissions to 1,270 schools in the district this academic year. A total of 18,752 have joined class 1, of whom 12,656 are in aided schools, 4,771 in government schools and 1,325 in unaided schools. As many as 3,62,767 students are entering the new academic year.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.