Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Kalamandalam, the premier institution for Kerala’s traditional art forms, will begin the new academic year with printed performance-study textbooks arranged in a structured format, marking the end of the gurukulam method in which students learnt merely by observing a guru’s facial expressions and hand gestures.

For the first time in its history, the institution has prepared textbooks for arts education as it welcomes school students. Since its establishment in 1930 by Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon, teaching had followed the gurukulam tradition, and there were no textbooks for arts education. Only a few handbooks for art teachers existed, and these were rarely updated in tune with changing times.

The books were prepared by a group of teachers at Kalamandalam with the support of SCERT under the General Education Department. The project, launched in April, took one-and-a-half months to complete, resulting in 60 books across 14 subjects. The textbook preparation workshop was supervised by SCERT Arts Division Research Officer K Satheesh Kumar.

At Kalamandalam school, 70 per cent of the curriculum is devoted to arts education. The institution, which admits students from Class 8 onwards, allocates only 30 per cent to academic studies. Kerala syllabus textbooks are already available for those subjects.

The books are intended for students from Classes 8 to 10. Dance forms, including Mohiniyattam, along with the northern and southern styles of Kathakali, have been included as lessons.

With performing arts also transitioning into the digital era, the new textbooks are aimed at connecting Kalamandalam with contemporary times.

Kalamandalam Vice-Chancellor Prof B Ananthakrishnan told Mathrubhumi that the new system would be implemented from the coming academic year. He added that a curriculum for higher education would also be introduced in future.