Overwhelming response to General Education Department’s Aksharavriksham programme

Week after week of staying home and waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic to blow over, imaginations have gone into an overdrive making a checklist of things to do when life assumes some semblance of normality.

Aadiraja M., a Class 8 student of SH Mount HSS, Kottayam, conveys in a few words the helplessness of being stuck inside four walls in his story Koodu. Through a small door, he can see a bird soar high, its lilting song entertaining him, its dance and its plumes tempting him. But he cannot follow the bird to do any of that. For, like a bird in a cage, he finds himself trapped. Koodu is just one of the stories, poems, and articles penned by schoolchildren in the State that give an insight into how they see the pandemic and how it has affected their immediate world and that at large.Oru Kakkakazhcha by Dhyana Krishna A.S. describes a crow gazing down at familiar city sights and seeing largely deserted streets, fewer vehicles zipping by, and air that is not reeking of decomposing waste.

In a touching account, Aleefa P. in Nanni Corona Nanni writes of how for the first time ever, children run up to a father without any fear in their eyes and Vishu is marked by his love, and not drunken bouts of violence. It concludes with their thanks to the virus, which has brought the family together.

Compelling works

The 76 stories, 148 poems, and 76 articles that have found their way into three collections comprise the first volume of students’ works brought out by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) from nearly 10,000 entries received till April 16 as part of the General Education Department’s Aksharavriksham programme to promote their creativity and independent thinking during the lockdown. The entries related to COVID-19 were selected by a committee of SCERT faculty and experts after a two-tier selection process.

40,000 entries

Till date, 40,000 entries have been received and posted to SchoolWiki from where these reach the SCERT. SCERT Director J. Prasad says the quality of the entries were a testimony to the talent of students in State schools. The works have been uploaded on the department portals and brought out in book form to take the students’ works to the masses.