Govt plans to organise inter-school band competitions

The Centre has made elaborate plans to organise inter-school band competitions across the country this year to promote the spirit of patriotism and unity among the students.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, which introduced the school band competitions last year, has expanded its scope to organise it in a much bigger way from this years.

“The competition will be open for all categories of schools,” a ministry official said.

The inter-school band competitions will be organised at three levels—State, zonal and national—from the first week of November to December 21, as per the guidelines issued by the ministry on October 25.

While the education departments in the states are required to complete the registration of the school bands for the competition by November 5, they will have to complete all the inter-school competitions in the state by November 20 and provide the list of the winners for zonal level competitions.

For the zonal level competitions to be held on December 5, two school bands—one of the boys and another of the girls—will be selected from each of the states and Union Territories.

“The top selected team, one each of the boys and girls from each of the six zones, will participate in the national level competition to be held in Delhi. A total of 12 best teams from the states and Union Territories will participate in the national level competition,” the official said.

The Central government's Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan will organise competitions of their school bands at their own levels and each will send names of two best teams for their participation at the national level competition.

While the best of the school band teams will get an opportunity to participate in the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26, 2019, the top three winning teams at the national level will get a cash prize of Rs 20,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.

At the zonal level, the top three school bands will get a prize of Rs 10,000, 7,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.