Education is not just learning from books but also includes learning through different activities. These activities include Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) and Science Technology Engineering Arts Math (STEAM) workshops. The activities include different math and science games, storytelling, painting, theatre etc. These workshops are a great way to enhance the learning of students through giving them active participation in their own learning instead of old passive learning methods. This sort of active learning is the base for impregnating the young minds with the seeds of critical thinking. Children’s’ Literature Festival (CLF) is aiming to provide such education workshops in different cities of our country. More recently a CLF was held in Multan to give this cause of promoting critical thinking one more push.
Smiling faces of children, colors and learning. These are not the scenes from any animated movie but from the Muslim High School Multan on 8th of November, when Children’s Literature Festival was held. Many schools took part in the festival and almost ten thousand students came to Muslim high school to attend the festival. It started at 9 in the morning with the inauguration ceremony. The inauguration ceremony started with the anthem of CLF and National Anthem on which the children from special education school performed. After the inauguration ceremony the festival was formally started and the school suddenly filled with the excited squeaks and happy songs of children. The garden which is in the middle of the main class rooms looked like a children’s paradise, where students were playing with colors and were singing poems in the choir. The garden was particularly given space for STEM and STEAM activities. The fun for the children just started from the garden as there were more activities waiting for them in different rooms. The beauty of CLF Multan was that the festival wasn’t just about arts or books rather a whole session was conducted on the advance learning, importance of internet and its safe use. In different rooms different activities were going on simultaneously. But the activities were so exciting that each room was jam packed with children. The resource persons who were conducting the sessions didn’t let the enthusiasm of children die. No wonder why the students wanted the sessions to go on even after the time of the festival was over. Last segment of the festival was the concert by the famous Laal band. The noteworthy aspect of this concert was not only the extraordinary performance of Taimur Rehman but equally enthusiastic response by the students.
In the end Alina Hamid, the project manager of CLF thanked the participants for attending the festival while Baela Raza Jamil , the founder of CLF , aimed to organize more such events with even higher success rate. She also emphasized that now is the time for the new generation to hold the command of this country so the students should also organize such events at smaller and larger levels.
A lot of schools took part in the festival to make it a successful venture. Many notable personalities who conducted different sessions were Baela Raza Jamil, Shakir Hussain Shakir, Peter Jacob , Atif Badar, Amra Alam, Sadia Amin, Inam Elahi, Maliha Rafi, Bushra Kausar, Rao Muhammad Akbar, Abdul Basit Bhatti, Zubaida Ahmer,Nazia Parveen, Amtul Basit, Abdullah Tanseer , Najaf, Naveed and Farah. Also different book stalls by Oxford University Press (OUP), Alif Laila Story Teller Library, National Book Foundation and Pearson ‘Bug Club’ made the festival more colorful and productive. Besides these stalls many other stalls were also there.
At the time when book reading and literature have face the existential threat and rote learning has become the modus operandi in schools, such events become really important. Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) deserve the credit for organizing such a successful and productive event. The benchmark of success this CLF has set in the city of saints will definitely encourage the others to organize such events. It is a ray of hope for building more productive education system.
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