By Sarah B. Haider
The third day of the Children’s Literature Festival Karachi marked the end of this year’s fête. A huge number of teachers, students and parents attended the festival with full zest and fervour.
The enthusiasm of the students, teachers and parents can be gauged from the fact that everyone was punctual and people started coming to Arts Council as early as 9.00 am on a Saturday!
Since it was a free public event, people from different backgrounds came to attend it. Though there were many sessions that were specifically aimed for teachers, students from all age groups enthusiastically participated in them. For instance, the session on “Addressing conflict through interactive reading”, “Innovative teaching methods,” and “Session on ICT”, were largely attended by children who not only listened to the discussions intently but also participated in them.
Miss Amna, an O level teacher present at the event said, “I really liked the session on Innovative Teaching Methods by Nusrat Ali. The different creative methods of teaching that he came up with were excellent and are sure to help teachers if they adopt them in their classes.”
The festival not only hosted various interactive session, theatres, musical and dance performance, painting activity, storytelling sessions, but also held a book fair. A large number of people, both kids and adults, visited the book stalls and bought the books of their choices.
“I came here to attend the festival with my friends, but I ended up buying a few books for myself. One can find all kinds of books here at the book stalls, ranging from story books to general knowledge books. However, I think they are pretty expensive”, said Faiza, a student from Army Public School, Karachi.
Among the sessions, the storytelling and theatres turned out to be the most popular among kids. The performers and storytellers did an excellent job by keeping the audience engaged from the start till the end. Keeping young children focused is not an easy task, but organisers did a wonderful job.
“The story telling and sing-song sessions conducted by Toffee TV were amazing. The presenters narrated the stories in such an intriguing manner that children as well as adults were completely absorbed in the story. I am sure the kids as well as all the teachers and parents here have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions,” stated Fatima, a primary teacher from the City School who came to attend the festival.
Similarly, the theatrical performances conducted by NAPA, Thespianz Theatre, students of AMI School and Gripps Theatre were simply outstanding.
“I really loved the theatre Chilghozay aur mozay. It kept all the students from my class totally engaged in the play. Children of Karachi need more such events to take place,” said Anam, a student from Happy Home School.
Hamza, an 11-year-old student happily expressed, “I loved the play “Ali Baba Chalees Chor”, organised by NAPA. I have read the story but the performance was so amazing that I will always remember the story word to word. Usually when my friends and I gather for some recreational activity, we make a lot of noise together for the sake of fun, but this story was so good that all of us watched it quietly.”
Though, the festival was dominated by school kids and teachers, many housewives and fathers also came to attend the festival.
Mrs. Arsalan, a housewife who has recently come to Pakistan from the UAE said, “It is indeed a very healthy activity for kids. In a city like Karachi, where every now and then something bad is happening and schools get shut down, children need something constructive like this so that they can get away from their suffocating routines and engage themselves in something positive”.
Likewise, Mr Anjum, a businessman who specially came to attend the festival with his 10-year-old son said, “The Children’s Literature Festival organised by Oxford University Press is indeed a very positive step to educate children.”
Mr Anjum was of the view that such literary activities for children could be a splendid way to spread awareness among children about Urdu and English literature, including drama and theatre. It can also open new avenues for children to participate in theatres when they grow up.
Carrying around 15 books in his hands that he bought for his son from the book fair, he further said, “I want my son to become a big fan of reading. Such literary events can inculcate reading habits in all children and should be conducted more often.”
The article was published here.
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