The State School Art Festival, which enthralled the city of Kollam for five days, concluded on Monday with Kannur district winning the gold cup after a gap of 23 years. Kozhikode, which fought for the cup till the last hours, had to settle for second place this time. Kozhikode’s dream to kiss on the golden trophy for the 21st time faltered in the final moments of Monday and ended in an upset.

Apart from singing paeans for Kozhikode and Kollam, considerable adulation should also reach Kollam for conducting the event adeptly with some unprecedented organisational excellence. Objections and complaints were relatively few. The undying enthusiasm of the people of Kollam for art fairs was on full display.

The organisation was intact, bereft of any hassles. The committee consisting of ministers, public representatives, teachers and public workers who laboured day and night to make the school arts festival a glitzy event can be proud of the achievement and the organisational success. 15,000 children participated in various competitions held at 24 venues. As usual, the deluge of appeals has once again caused many competitions to be delayed. Education Minister Sivankutty proposed ways to control the flurry of appeals and it was noteworthy. He has mentioned that the arts festival will be based on the revised manual from next year.

Amidst this, the government proposal to start a separate arts school only for dedicated students who have shown mettle in the field needs some retrospection. There is no assurance whether the move will yield results. Some children distance themselves away from such competitions because of their bad financial situation. The government can work ways to select such capable students and bring them to the forefront with adequate financial help.

Dance competition requires dresses that should be eye-catching. The makeup also should be meticulous and all these come at a huge cost. Capable students from poor families may not have the luxury to afford these and will decide to opt out of these competitions. An expert committee should be formed to discern how the government can resolve this crisis and help these students perform on the big stage.

The next crisis is the shedload of competition items in the arts festival that are proving to be a headache in judgment. Some of the competition items are art forms that are meant just for school festival completions. Not many might have expertise in these varied art forms and the same is reflected in judgment that can be erroneous at times.

The main role of teachers in school is to discover the hidden artistic flair in every child and mould them by providing the necessary encouragement. Beyond the points, grace marks and cash awards, every art festival should be the best platform to nurture creativity in children.