Folk game or dance: Teachers, edu board fight over ‘kikkli’

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh , January 4

Is ‘kikkli’ Punjab’s folk dance or folk game? The answer to this question has put scores of aspiring teachers and Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) at loggerheads.

This objective-type question had appeared in the recently held Punjab State Teachers’ Eligibility Test, Part-I (PSTET-I), which was conducted by PSEB.

Thinking ‘kikkli’ to be a folk dance, scores of candidates had ticked the “folk dance” option during the exam.

The PSEB, despite several representations by students, continues to maintain that ‘kikkli’ is a folk game, not a folk dance.

Although the board has changed the answers to several questions after objections were raised by candidates, it has stuck to its stand as far as ‘kikkli’ is concerned.

The TET was conducted on December 13 and its result was declared on December 23. The answer keys were uploaded four days in advance — December 19.

While uploading the keys, the PSEB had given two days to candidates to register their objections. The affected aspirants kept knocking on the doors of the board till last week.

Affected aspirants claimed that the question about ‘kikkli’ was among 11 questions whose answers were “wrongly uploaded”.

“Hours before the declaration of the result, the answer keys were revised. However, the answer to ‘kikkli’ was not changed,” said Manpreet Kaur of Fatehgarh Sahib, who led the delegation of aspirants to the PSEB chairperson.

“The nature of ‘kikkli’ may be open to interpretation. We had given the answer on the basis of the comprehension given about ‘kikkli’ in the question paper,” she said.

Gurbir Singh of Todarpur village of Patiala district said, “While deciding that ‘kikkli’ is a folk game, PSEB is ignoring its own book of Punjabi compulsory subject for 10+2 class wherein ‘kikkli’ is described as a folk dance.”

However, chairperson, PSEB, Dr Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal, said, “After objections were raised by several students, we invited the opinion of subject experts. We revised our answer keys in accordance with their opinion. The revised answer keys are final.”

However, Kirpal Kazak, retired Professor of Literary Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, who has also authored “Punjabi Culture and Folk Games”, said, “People always give different opinions about it.

“According to me, ‘kikkli’ is a folk game, not a folk dance. In dance forms, performers, besides dancing, connect with the audience with their expressions. But expressions are missing in ‘kikkli’. Moreover, there is no variation in the movement of performers of ‘kikkli’.

“But people see it as a folk dance as unlike games, there is no winner or loser in ‘kikkli’,” he said.