Coimbatore: The bands of two city schools will represent Tamil Nadu at a South India-level band competition to be conducted by the ministry of human resource development.The band of Avila Convent Matriculation Higher Secondary School on Thadagam Road emerged winners in the girls’ category and that of CMS Matriculation Higher Secondary School at Ganapathi emerged winners in the boys’ category at the state-level school band competition held in Trichy on Thursday and Friday. They had to compete with more than 30 bands from other districts to represent Tamil Nadu in the competition to be held in Hyderabad. The winners will progress to the national-level competition.Representatives from Avila Convent Matriculation Higher Secondary School said the school has had a band for more than 30 years. “It has 40 students from classes VII to XII, who train thrice a week,” said the representative.Principal of the CMS Matriculation Higher Secondary School H Hajah Sheriff said the school’s 41-member strong band trains twice a week. “We trained them strenuously for 10 days before the event,” he told TOI. “Though some training sessions extended till late evening, students and parents co-operated well.”Though the two bands have about 40 members each, the competition allowed only 25 participants in each team. So the schools had to downsize. “Though only 25 students could participate in a team, we took all our 41 members so that they all could experience the competition,” said Sheriff.Officials from Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan said the two bands would compete with bands from Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry in the competition to be held in Hyderabad in November-end or in December under the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan.

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