Cultural festival: Cementing Pak-German ties

Students held stalls exhibiting German history, industry, cuisine and dances.

ISLAMABAD:

Guests and students celebrated the German Cultural Festival at Roots Preparatory and O Level Branch in sector F-8/4 on Saturday. The ceremony was held in relevance to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Roots School System and Goethe Institute in 2009 to “awaken students’ interest and enthusiasm for the modern-day Germany and German Society”.

The chief guest on the occasion, the Head of the Press and Cultural Section of the Embassy of Republic of Germany in Islamabad, Dr Thomas Ditt, was presented a bouquet of fresh seasonal flowers by the students and national anthems of both countries were sung with great fervour.

The students of roots school had set up stalls focusing on Germany’s history, car industry, cuisine, sports and research, along with Bavarian dances by prep-level students. Carnival, games, face painting, and stage performance were also part of the festivities, under the title “Mind your language”.

The ceremony was also attended by Goethe Institute Pakistan’s Director Dr Markuz Litz.

Speaking on the occasion, Roots School System Executive Director Faisal Mushtaq said, “Roots today is beyond education and schooling.

It is changing the national education landscape and paradigm through its award winning curriculum, thus promoting social change and community re-engineering.”

After signing the MoU with Goethe Institute, Roots Schools System now offers German language classes in all its branches, with around 1,200 of its students currently enrolled in the programme. Of these, five
students were selected and sent on the Youth Summer Camp held in Germany in 2009.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th,  2011.