Kalai Thiruvila – Schools

The School Education Department aims to emphasise Art for All & All for Art to help break both the barriers as well as negative perceptions of art forms associated with caste, class or religion. The programme envisions introduction of art & culture in schools to build the confidence of students to express, connect and promote a vibrant, humane & empathetic learning environment. In order to bring out the inherent talent of the students and connect those skills with traditional culture, classes on various art forms have been initiated in schools during this academic year at a cost of Rs.5.35 Crore. A model syllabus and timetable has been created and implemented in the form of Kalai Arangam with over 3000 local artists across the state roped in to teach and train various art forms to students of Classes 6-9. Competitions are held across the different verticals of Visual Arts, Drama, Music, Dance and Folklore at school, block and district levels to encourage students to participate and identify and groom top performers for national and international events. 206 different forms of Kalai Thiruvizha competitions have been conducted for 28.52 lakh students studying in government schools from Classes 6 to 12. The roll up of students from school level brought 17,038 students to the state level mega event conducted in December 2022. Among these, 1,759 students were celebrated with the Kalaiyarasan and Kalaiyarasi awards presented by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.