18 schools take part in cultural fiesta at ISM

At least 1,500 students from 18 different schools, including 16 Indian schools across the sultanate, took part in a two-day inter-school cultural fiesta recently. The event called ‘Jhaaankar Spectrum’, was the fourth edition of the festival where students compete with each other in various categories.

Speaking about the event, Alex C Joseph, a teacher in the English department of Indian School Muscat (ISM), said, “The event is being organised by ISM for the last few years. It is one of the biggest student festivals in the Gulf region in terms of participants and number of events. ISM took care of boarding and lodging of all the participants and the logistics associated with the event.”

This year the American British Academy and British School Muscat also took part in the fiesta. In 2010, 12 schools took part in the festival while the 2009 edition was cancelled due to H1N1 virus fears.

Joseph added, “From this year, ISM has introduced a mascot for the event, a mouse called ‘Mitu’. Next year, it will be a rabbit called ‘Popo’. The event had 23 categories including theatre, music and elocution.” Dr Swati Kulkarni, chargé d’affaires at the Indian Embassy was the chief guest during the concluding day of the event on Thursday.