Aiming to attract more students, admin to make museum visit free for them

Aiming to spread awareness among students about the Indian heritage and culture, the UT ministry of culture has decided to waive off entry fee to all the museums under its jurisdiction for school students from August 1.

Aiming to spread awareness among students about the Indian heritage and culture, the UT ministry of culture has decided to waive off entry fee to all the museums under its jurisdiction for school students from August 1.

According to officials, although a number of foreign tourists and middle-aged individuals were regular visitors to the museums, the children only visited during their educational trips.

"While students from schools visit the museum as part of their educational trips, a lot is yet to be done to ensure that children are willing to visit such places with their families and friends. Schools need to play a more active role in spreading education among the students about the Indian heritage", said PC Sharma, officer in charge of Chandigarh Architect Museum.

For Shivam Sharma, a student of the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10 the museums never managed to capture his fascination. "I am not an art-lover and hence don't feel like going to the museums. Students who want to make their careers in arts and culture visit the museums more frequently,"he said. .

Commenting on the efforts taken by the administration to encourage students to visit the museums, PC Sharma said that officials were periodically delivering lectures on Indian culture at different schools and that schools were invited to organise visits to the museums.

However, few officials believed that merely waiving off the entry fee for students would not increase their footfall in the museums.

"The motive of the scheme would not be fulfilled until promotional activities at school level are not increased. Schools should ensure that they impart practical knowledge to the students of the concepts they read in their history books so that field visits become more intriguing for them ", said an officer.