The Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Trilokpuri has neither running water nor classroom fans — music and drama classes are far down the line. While the picture of arts education is brighter at resource-rich private schools, even here the time and space afforded to arts is a pale glimmer of that marked for mainstream subjects. That is set to change.

The new syllabi from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), for Classes 1-10, which will be circulated later this year, will upgrade arts education — theatre, music, dance and the visual arts — from extra-curricular pastimes to subjects squarely positioned in the school curriculum.

“Students aren’t given a chance to explore creativity in our education system,” says classical singer Shubha Mudgal, who chaired the focus groups for art education while developing the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. “And when they are, it’s in limited bursts — for annual days or the celebration of Independence.”

Chand Singh Bijiyan, principal of Government Boys Senior Secondary School in East of Kailash, puts this down to disinterest: “Government school students usually wish to take up science, or commerce streams, to find jobs. Few go into the arts.”

But by making art education subjects compulsory up to Class 10, graded and examined in secondary classes, the NCERT is catalysing a shift in the perception of arts and culture.

“Arts education is seen as a non-serious subject that, unlike other subjects, lacks a formal procedure for assessment,” says Jyotsna Tiwari, reader, Department of Education in Arts and Aesthetics, NCERT. “Evaluation is thus imperative — but not to assess whether a child becomes a perfect artist, rather a child’s experience over time, their freedom of expression and joy.”

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