Central Board of Secondary Education will conduct "Expression Series" for its students on the second Friday and Saturday of every month this academic session.

The "Expression Series" is a "writing series" initiated by the CBSE in August 2014 as part of various activities conducted by the board for the holistic development of students.

The topic for the competition in July would be uploaded on July 8 and would focus not only on the contribution of great leaders of India but also on several important issues related to women, society (both rural and urban) and nation.

Joint secretary (academics and training) D.T. Sudharsan Rao said: "Entries in the form of essays and poems can be submitted by the students, online and offline, through CBSE website, www.cbseacademic.in, or through mobile application. Students may express their ideas and thoughts in any of the 22 scheduled languages and in English. The final winners shall be selected from three categories - classes I to V, classes VI to VIII and classes IX to XII."

"The students would be evaluated on their originality of expression, presentation, use of multiple media and relevance to the topic. Students must refrain from taking material from available resources directly. They should do a research on the topic and write in their own words," said Rao.

According to the CBSE circular, uploaded on July 1, the board wants to cater to the needs of the schools with limited connectivity to the Internet. It has devised a registration-cum-response sheet, which may be downloaded, printed or photocopied for distribution to the participants. The schools and participants are required to scan and send it through the CBSE official link or the mobile application.

Last year, Aman of Mount Litera Zee School, Begusarai, was the only school to have bagged this prize in Bihar. Aman joined a selected list of 36 winners from among thousands of entries received from all the CBSE schools nationwide. He was invited to Delhi to participate in the Children's Day celebration and was awarded a cash prize of Rs 2,500 and a certificate of excellence for his achievement by human resource development minister Smriti Irani.

Students in city-based CBSE-affiliated schools are excited about the upcoming national competition. Harshavardhan Ojha, a Class XII student of St Michael's High School, said: "I am known at my school for expressing my thoughts and ideas in poem and I have written hundreds of poems on various issues and simply on pictures. I am looking forward to register for this competition and eagerly waiting for the topic which will be given by the CBSE."

Like Harsh, many of his classmates were also excited to take part in the "expression series" contest.

Another student Neha Raj, a Class VII student of Radiant International School, said she had won many inter-house and inter-school essay and debate competitions and wants to try her best in this national competition. "No one from Patna has won this competition yet. I will try hard to win and make my school, city and state proud."