Power of reading : Bringing children, teachers closer to books

ISLAMABAD: The capital is all set to host 3rd Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) along with Teachers’ Literature Festival (TLF), aimed at encouraging children towards creativity and unorthodox learning practices.

“Over 35,000 children and 5,000 teachers are expected to participate in the upcoming three-day event starting from October 1,” CLF Programme Manager Maham Ali said at a press conference on Tuesday.



The event is a joint collaboration of Oxford University Press, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the National institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa).

She said the main agenda was to provide children with a unique platform for exploring innovation and critical thinking during learning processes and driving their attention towards reading books.

“Open to all children and school systems, the festival is designed to unlock the power of reading, through multisensory experiences,” she added.

Lok Virsa Executive Director Dr Fouzia Saeed said it would be a rare opportunity for children since they do not often get to attend interactive literary sessions like CLF.  “Events like these, which encourage children towards critical thinking rather than rote learning practices, should be held more frequently,” she said.

“Indirectly, such initiatives also focus on curtailing extremist trends among children, by exposing them to pluralistic and innovative learning experiences,” she added.



Nargis Sultana from Open Society Foundations said this initiative is very important in context to quality education.

She said not just children but teachers will also be brought closer to books. “The session is unique in a sense that books written by children will also be launched thereby creating a new kind of literature,” she said. “Children will also be taught on how to use a library and what books to chose during CLF,” Sultana added.

She said festivals like these should become a national movement towards creativity and out-of-the-box learning.

Experts will be speaking on various topics such as script writing, inspiring children towards reading and art of doing that with expressions, shared Ali.

Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid will be inaugurating the CLF as chief guest on October 2, while Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman will be participating as guest of honour.

TLF will be held on October 1, followed by CLF on October 2 and 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2015.