Arts is history

Jamshedpur, Nov. 30: Shakespeare and Adam Smith, bow out of Plus Two classrooms.

Telco’s Gulmohur High School has decided to do away with the arts stream in its Plus Two level (Indian School Certificate Examinations) from the next session as there are hardly any takers. The school, affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi, will just offer science and commerce streams. Gulmohur High School has been one of the three Jamshedpur schools offering arts after ICSE in Plus Two, the other two being Loyola School and Sacred Heart Convent School. But currently, the combined strength of the Telco school’s arts stream is merely 11 students.

“We are forced to take the step as one can’t continue a stream without students. Getting teachers for arts subjects is also difficult,” said school principal Sunita Sinha.

To explain the dwindling numbers, teachers pointed to the craze among students and their parents for careers in medicine, engineering, management and chartered accountancy.

Now, students who fail to bag arts seats in Loyola School or Sacred Heart Convent School will have to shift their board (ICSE) and seek seats in intermediate colleges.

But arts aspirants can find solace in the fact that unlike the rush for seats in other streams, there is hardly any competition here. In Loyola School, out of 52 seats, 21 lie vacant, unlike in science and commerce streams, where hundreds of applicants vie for seats.