Make music mandatory in schools: Governor ESL Narasimhan

Hyderabad: Governor ESL Narasimhan has said that music classes should be made mandatory in all schools like in the olden days. He was speaking at the meeting with the members of the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) held at Raj Bhavan on Thursday.

The Governor appreciated the efforts of SPIC MACAY in organising a variety of cultural programmes, highlighting the country's rich cultural heritage in colleges and schools. He said these efforts would go a long way in conserving and promoting awareness of the country's rich cultural heritage in music and art forms, especially among the student community.

The Governor said special focus should be made to target students of classes from IV to XII in residential schools of all categories, both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, to organise orientation programs and carry out the message across all students in collaboration with locally established cultural centres. Narasimhan also said SPIC MACAY should first cover all residential schools and then scale it up to universities in both the states.

Dr Kiran Seth, founder of SPIC MACAY, detailed the activities and programs of the society, which is a volunteer-driven and non-profit organization and has been spreading awareness about the Indian classical music and culture amongst the youth of the country for the past 40 years. Seth said during the previous year, the organization has conducted 70 workshops in Wanaparthy, Yadadri, Bhuvanagiri, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts.

Seth said that the first Telangana State convention was organized at the Rajiv Gandhi University for Knowledge Technologies (RJUKT) at Basara of Nirmal district and cultural programs at 25 Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools. He also explained about the programs proposed to be taken up during the next academic year of 2019-20. On the occasion, the Governor released the organization's report for the year 2018-19.