The Kannur panchayat in north Kerala has published over a thousand books authored by over 50,000 students from government and aided schools in the district.

The idea floated by district panchayat president and CPM leader P.P. Divya materialised on Friday when chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan unveiled 1,056 books in Malayalam, entirely the work of over 50,000 students from 1,020 of the 1,100 government and government-aided schools in Kannur.

While it’s common for school students to express their creative writing skills in their school magazines, it’s the first time anywhere in the country that such a large number of students were engaged in writing, editing and sketching the cover designs of so many books. Officials of the Universal Records Forum awarded a certificate describing it as the “Most number of books published in a venue”.

The books were funded and published under a project titled Ente Pusthakam, Ente Vidyalayam (My Book, My School), envisaged by the panchayat.

The books contain short stories, poetry, skits, travelogues and articles on science — all written by students of Classes I to XII. While 1,000 students edited the entries, a similar number used their artistic skills to sketch the covers of each of the books.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan unveils 1056 books containing stories, poems, travelogues and other articles authored by over 50,000 students at an event in Kannur

“We basically wanted school students to express themselves through words to counter the negative impact of the Covid lockdown that left them hooked to social media,” Divya told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

“The Covid shutdown had negatively impacted reading among students. As a consequence, their writing skills had suffered and many of them exhibited even behavioural changes.”

“Since writing and reading are inter-linked, and together they usher in positive changes in individuals, we thought of encouraging school children to express themselves by writing,” Divya explained.

But the response surprised everyone. “No one expected so many students to express their creativity in the form of writing and drawing. I was surprised at the excellent quality of at least 25 per cent of the now-published entries,” she said.

The panchayat had roped in Kairali Books, a Kannur-based private entity, and CPM’s Chintha Publishers due to the large number of titles to be printed and launched at the same time.

The few schools that didn’t join the initiative have contacted the panchayat to seek opportunities in the future. “I have been getting enquiries from the schools that didn’t participate in this initiative,” Divya said.

Each book is specifically dedicated to a genre (short story, poetry, etc) and carries the name of the school. The names of the students appear along with their works.

“Every child would cherish for a lifetime what is printed in her or his name. Many who are good at writing may not have the resources to get them published. Such creative writings scribbled in some old notebooks seldom get noticed,” Divya noted.

“These books would now be read and discussed in schools as they would soon reach school libraries. This would naturally encourage children to write more and read more. Let our students become good writers and thinkers and their lives become more creative,” she added.

It’s been a novel experience even for the printers. “Although written by school students, this is a unique experience for us since we published 756 titles at one go,” O. Ashokkumar, managing director of Kairali Books, told this newspaper.

The rest of the titles were printed by Chintha Publishers.

Primary education minister V. Sivankutty told the large gathering of students, teachers, parents and the general public at the launch ceremony in Kannur that he would ensure these books are supplied to all government and aided schools in the state.