Udhagamandalam: A two-day workshop for schoolteachers on heritage education and communication began in the town on Friday. The workshop, first of its kind in the Nilgiris, was conducted by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Nilgiris chapter.
Over 30 teachers from 18 schools, including government schools, from across the Nilgiris took part in the workshop. Principal director of Heritage Education and Communication Service (INTACH) Purnima Datt conducted a session on techniques on the first day of the workshop.
The technical session covered cultural heritage, built heritage, material heritage and living heritage. Speaking on the occasion, convener of INTACH (Nilgiris chapter) Geetha Srinivasan said, “It is a pathbreaking workshop for teachers in the Nilgiris. This is to create awareness among the teaching community.”
She said, “To kindle young minds, heritage clubs will be developed in schools in the Nilgiris. Hence, this workshop for teachers would help in the process.”
Stating that connecting young people to heritage factors is very difficult, Purnima said, “It is the parents and teachers’ responsibility to instill at least a little bit of our own heritage.” She said, “We talk about our fundamental rights but not much about our fundamental duties. Our fundamental duties include taking care of our identity, our natural heritage and cultural heritage.”
“The objective is, in the past two centuries, we have been witnessing a lot of destruction of our heritage which is thousands and thousands of years old,” said Suresh, president, INTACH, Tamil Nadu. He added, “Like nature club, arts club, music club, schools could have heritage clubs too.”
With a field trip to heritage sites in the Nilgiris and interaction sessions the workshop will conclude on Saturday.
