Kerala launches digital magazine showcasing students' writings from state school art fest

THIRUVANTHAPURAM: A digital magazine featuring notable writings by children who took part in the Kerala State School Art Festival held here early this year, is now just a click away. General Education Minister V Sivankutty released the magazine by sharing it's link on his official Facebook page on Saturday.

In his post, the minister said the General Education Department with technical support from the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) came up with this innovative online magazine. Titled "Mazha Mannil Ezhuthiyath", the digital magazine aims to bring readers a collection of excellent writings from the art festival, he said.

"Our school art festivals often bring out many excellent works in the writing categories... especially in the story and poetry categories. But these often go unnoticed," he said.

Digital magazine features podcast system

The digital magazine features a podcast system that allows readers to listen to stories and poems in the voices of their young authors, the minister said. Videos of the performances can be accessed by scanning the QR codes provided with each piece in the magazine, he added.

The illustrations and other artwork in the magazine were also created by children who won in the art competitions. The reading and presentation of the magazine was filmed by the Kite-Victors channel and it was designed using Scribus, a free software. The page is designed for easy readability on smartphones and computers.

The magazine comprises a total of 56 write-ups. Apart from the children, KITE's master trainers and wiki workers have worked behind the scenes of the digital magazine, Sivankutty said adding that the magazine can be downloaded from the KITE website.