KOLLAM: The lone fisheries school in the district, that even had to struggle with only a single student in a classroom, has now stood up for a comprehensive change by including arts and literature in the curriculum. The seats at Dr V.V. Velukkutty Arayan Memorial Government Regional Fisheries Technical Vocational Higher Secondary School in Karunagappally are reserved for children from the fishermen community. “The school having good infrastructure facilities once excelled with cent percentage pass. It then experienced a fall in the number of students during the past several years. It even had only one student in Standard VIII last year. Now the PTA has taken many innovative steps including generating awareness among fishermen on the facilities in the school to stage a comeback,” VHSE principal S. Anil Kumar told this newspaper.
The school has now commenced a year-long programme for arts, literature, and personality development expected to go hand-in-hand with the academics sponsored by the Velukkutty Arayan Foundation. “Soon after the orientation, we were excited to hear the students volunteering to write stories and even make film documentaries. By incorporating art and literature in addition to the curriculum, we expect to provide the younger generation with a more developed mindset,” he added. The students will be given hands-on training by experts in the areas of music, literature, film making, and musical instruments. They are also given personality development, civil service and entrance coaching, and spoken English classes.
“We intend to identify the talent of students during these extra-curricular activities and give them specialised training. We will invite well-known personalities to have interactive sessions with the students. The students have constituted even a telefilm club because of their interest in movies,” Anil V. Nagendran, Velukkutty Foundation director and filmmaker said. The students were also given free musical instruments of their choice by the Foundation. One of the 10 schools in the state run by the Fisheries Department, VHSE also has student clubs for environment, bio-farming, drama, music, and a reading club.
