The school arts festival, besides serving as a launch pad for many popular artistes in the State, has paved the way for experimentation of a concept that the State can be proud of.
The 56th State School Arts Festival held in Kozhikode in 2010 was the launch pad for the Home Department’s Student Police Cadets, an innovative model of community-based policing, which since then has become a vital cog in the smooth conduct of the festival.
Hundreds of SPC volunteers have been roped in for the current edition of the festival. From manning traffic near the venues, transporting participants to venues and accommodation centres to maintaining cleanliness of the premises, the cadets have become an important part of the festival and they take pride in adorning any role.
“It’s a great opportunity to showcase our capabilities and learn several things. In fact, when the teacher in charge of the project informed us about cadets being recruited to organise the festival, every one of us wanted to be part of it. Being a cadet has given me the ability to explore the limits of my courage and helped hone my skills,” Ashker Salim, a Class 9 student of St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, told The Hindu .
Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Vijayan, who is the State Nodal Officer for the project, said the idea behind the project was to help the students become responsible and law abiding citizens.
“The school festival held in Kozhikode was where it was tested. The service of 1,000 cadets was used to run the festival and it proved to be a huge success. Since then there has been no looking back,” he said.
At present, around 40,000 cadets are undergoing a well-designed two-year SPC training programme in Kerala. The scheme has been expanded to 433 schools within a short span of five years.
