Schools must tour heritage sites: CBSE

Hyderabad: There was a time in history when school vacations meant travelling to your hometown, city or your village. Not any longer though. Vacations now mean exotic locations outside the country, even for the student community. Touring India or even exploring your own state is no longer a priority. Perhaps it was with this in mind that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has notified all schools to conduct Paryatan Parv, a programme specially designed to encourage tourism in India from 5th to 25th October. 

The notification by CBSE states that schools should encourage trips and excursions to heritage spots as it would help them ‘connect with the real world which will lead to acquisition of permanent knowledge.’

P. Ushasri, principal of Johnson Grammar School, says, “We conduct picnics on yearly basis but for safety measures, we do not encourage out of state trips. We agree that students should learn more about our state’s heritage spots. Most children visit abroad or go to Delhi, Jaipur and so on during their holidays. We ask them to share their experiences after the holidays. This will be a welcome change and we will encourage students to speak about our heritage spots like Golconda.”

Meanwhile, schools have also been notified to conduct debates, essay competitions, quizzes and painting competitions related to tourism. Some schools have already started the practice. Seetha Murthy, principal of Silver Oaks School, says, “Our school has a heritage club and we conduct heritage quizzes annually where children are quizzed about heritage spots across the nation.” 

Interestingly, Hyderabad fails to make it to the list of tourist destinatio-ns chosen for 4,000 girls from Kendriya and Navodya Vidyalaya who will be visiting spots in Ban-galore, Mysore and Goa. Encouragement of state tourism for this year’s programme will ensure that Hyderabad will be a preferred destination spot for schools next year.