Students make National Science Drama Festival a grand success

Kolkata: Students across the country participated in the National Science Drama Festival held in the city on Thursday.

Principal secretary of state School Education department Manish Jain, along with Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre director Gouri Basu, inaugurated the festival at Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM). Padatik Theatre artistic director Vinay Sharma was also present on the occasion.

"I am thankful to BITM for giving me this opportunity to interact with all of you. Drama is a strong communication tool through which we can decode the difficult subjects in our daily life. I am happy that National Council of Science Museums with the effort of BITM has taken up this initiative of conducting drama with science," said Jain.

Every year, the National Council of Science Museums conducts National Science Drama Festival for school students, wherein theatre is used as a medium for spreading scientific messages.

The participation is open to all school students till Class X. It is held at the Taluka (town) level, District level, State level, Zonal level and National level, in active collaboration with Education departments and department of Science and Technology of various states and Union Territories.

"There are five zones in the country. Two teams (comprising 10 members) from each zone participate at the national level. The first National Science Drama Festival was held at Science City in 2000. Since then, it has been conducted by the National Council of Science Museum in different states. This year it was held at BITM," said V S Ramachandran, director of BITM.

"Theatre accords you the opportunity to say things in different ways. Theatre makes you express yourself. In my opinion theatre should be included in the school curriculum," pointed out Sharma.