The State Government has initiated a project to create a Heritage club in every school of the state to explore historic awareness among the students and to protect and preserve the historic documents and relics that exist in every house. The State Archives Department is the nodal agency for this.
The club envisages spreading awareness about the spell binding history of the bygone society among the youth, thereby making them capable to protect the relics. The Heritage clubs will go a long way in protecting the heritage wealth such as history, culture, and historic records. It will also be helpful in spreading awareness among the youth on the significance of historic documents. Each Heritage club will have an executive committee headed by a teacher and comprising 5 students, a convener and a joint convener.
The projects initiated by the Archives Department for schools
- A project to grant Rs. 20,000 to a School in a District.
With the ardent support from the Heritage clubs in the schools, the department intends to arrange local history compositions, documentary making, study tours, heritage surveys and so forth. To conduct this, the government will grant Rs.20, 000 to each school in the district. The grant will be given to the best project selected from the applicants.
- Heritage Award
The schools with Heritage Clubs that bring out the best performance are bestowed with awards. The first place winner is awarded with Rs.25000, second place winner is provided with 15000 and the third place winner will receive Rs. 10,000 as award. The winners are selected by evaluating the activities of each Heritage Club.
- History Quiz
The Department of Archives in association with the Education Department organizes History quiz every year inorder to build awareness among the students about our heritage and the significance of archives in historical writings. The competition is conducted at four major levels - school level, DEO Level, regional level and state level. The first, second and third place winners at the state level are bestowed with trophies and Rs. 25000, 15000, and 10000 as cash prize respectively.
- Heritage Study Tours
Study Tours are conducted by the Archives Department for the winners of the History Quiz to historically relevant places.
- History Exhibition
History exhibitions are organised by showcasing historical documents, relics and artefacts preserved under the archives department to create awareness among the students regarding the value of historical records and the foregone era. The Archives Department conducts this exhibition free of cost in the schools according to their order of application.
- Heritage Camp
Inorder to improve the working of Heritage Clubs, Heritage camps are organised with the participation of members of the club, students and teachers every year. As part of this, seminars and cultural programmes related to heritage and historical studies are conducted by eminent scholars.
- Celebration of Official language- Malayalam
The department organizes a grand language festival with the aim of spreading the heritage of Malayalam language among the people. It also aims to introduce them to the world of palm leaf manuscripts, Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Tamil, Sanskrit and Malayazhma writings. It aspires to make the students aware about Malayalam- its progress and evolution.
- A Visit to Archives
Archives is the store house of all the historical and heritage documents of the State. It holds a rich collection of palm leaf documents, records in Persian, Urudu, Sanskrit languages, Bamboo inscripts, records written in copper plates and so forth. The department encourages visits to its directorate, regional office and Archives Museum for research purposes.
