THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government will begin monitoring competitions at the school level from the next year as part of ensuring fairness and transparency in all stages of the state school arts festival.
At present, supervision of the fete by the general education department begins from the sub-district level.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty told TNIE that this apart, the government will also consider bringing in a law soon to curb appeals obtained by contestants from bodies like the child rights and human rights commissions.
There have been complaints about the judging process at the school level as there is no monitoring mechanism by the department in place at present, Sivankutty said.
“The festival manual will be revised to bring in guidelines on how the competition should be held at the school level,” he said, adding the document will also lay down guidelines on how judges should be selected to assess school-level competitions.
“An observer from the general education department will be deployed during school-level competitions to monitor the process,” he said.
On appeals at various levels of the competition, Sivankutty said their numbers were fewer this time than previous years. “However, the government will consider enacting a legislation soon to curb appeals obtained by contestants from quasi judicial bodies such as the child rights and human rights commissions,” he said.
“In a democratic set up, people are free to approach the court and the government is bound to comply with its orders. However, we see commissions, that may not be competent to judge the merit of the performances, directing the government to consider appeals,” Sivankutty noted. The proposed legislation will lay down competent bodies where appeals can be submitted.
Sivankutty also noted that the practice of limiting the merits of a contestant’s performance to mere arguments between advocates in courts needs to be examined too. “Ideally, opinions of experts in the particular art form should be sought before arriving at a decision,” he said.
The department, he said, was also trying to get the state school arts festival included in the world records. “It’s the biggest event of its kind in Asia with a participation of over 14,000 students. However, the high entrance fee in enrolling the event in record books is a deterrent,” he said.