Team Herald

MARGAO: Ravindra Bhawan Margao Chairman Prashant Naik opined that educational syllabus needs to be changed so that children understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by freedom fighters to attain independence instead of merely studying it to answer their exams.

Speaking as the chief guest for the inter-school patriotic song singing competition organized by the Lions Club of Margao in collaboration with Ravindra Bhawan, he regretted that the younger generation is not even aware of many things that happened in the society during the freedom struggle.

“There are people like Kumudini Kavlekar from Canacona who left her house to participate in the freedom movement when girls of her age were thinking of marriage,” he said and stressed the need to educate and inform the younger generation of such individuals who sacrificed a lot only for their principles and values. He lamented that only seven schools participated in the competition even though 13 schools of the nearly 30 schools in Margao had confirmed their participation. 

“Maybe we should change the time of the competition as August 15 morning is quite taxing since children also have to attend flag hoisting ceremony in their own school,” he said.

The competition was judged by Sidharth Yaji, Savita Bagli and Dhanraj Madkaikar.

Manovikas High School won the first prize for singing the Hindi song “Jeet Hamari” that was written and composed by a teacher Purba Sinharim while the second prize was won by Ravindra Kelkar Gnyan Mandir for the Konkani song “Ya bhuimche put ami” that was written and composed by teacher Brijesh Shet Dessai.

The third prize was shared by Mahila and Nutan High School whose students sang the famous “Jai Asthute” written by famous Veer Sawaikar and Model English High School whose students sang a fusion version of A R Rahman’s “Vande Mataram”.