COIMBATORE: Kalai Thiruvizha, a cultural festival organised by the school education department in government schools recently, has sparked a controversy as teachers in some schools made students performed to film songs.
The incident came to light after teachers shared videos of the performances in social media. In particular, the dance video of a class 12 girl posted by a teacher in Pudukkottai on her YouTube channel has crossed six million views. Though the students were lauded for their skills, educationists slammed the department, stating such performances could lead them astray.
Kalvi Memapattu Kottamaipu coordinator Su Moorthy said, “It has become clear that organisers had no understanding about the event. When other students see these videos, they will also be encouraged to record song and dance clips and promote them to gain popularity. This could affect their education and also their private life. I appreciate talents, but school is not the place for students to exhibit them.”
Art Teacher Welfare Association president SA Rajkumar told TNIE, “The school education department directed that 37 types of competition should be conducted to students under the seven categories such as music, drama, language, etc. But it did not explicitly state that film based performances are not allowed. There are, however, general guidelines that film based activities should not be allowed during school events.”
He added, “Many schools across the state, including mine in Coimbatore, allowed film -based performances in the event. Officials and teachers did not intervene even when students danced to raunchy numbers. Stringent action should be taken against the teachers.”
N Rahman Khan, a psychologist, said, “Cinema and social media have a big impact on teenagers, in particular students. They tend to dress or eat like the screen models. They do not understand that what they see on screen is not real. When teachers allow the students to dance to romantic songs, it will mislead the students because they are adolescents. When other students see this, they may think that this is way to become famous.”
Advocate R Ramkumar told TNIE, “As per the Information Technology Act, without permission of an individual, anybody has no rights to post images, videos or audios that violates privacy of an individual. But this is what happened when teachers circulated the videos. Officials must inquire and take action against concerned those who uploaded videos without the students consent.”
When contacted, Pudukkottai Chief Educational Officer S Mannivannan told TNIE he was not aware that film songs should not be allowed in schools.” However, the Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer R Boopathi claimed such incidents did not happen in the district.
As usual, school education commissioner R Nandakumar and secretary Kakarla Usha did not respond to TNIE’s attempts for comments.