ISLAMABAD: The 21st Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) and the 5th Teachers Literature Festival will be held from October 1 to the 3rd at Lok Virsa, Islamabad.

The event will be hosted by the Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) and the Oxford University Press (OUP).

The chief guest of CLF Islamabad is going to be State Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman while an invitation has also been extended to Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervez Rashid.

The Children’s Literature Festival is a social movement founded by Baela Raza Jamil of ITA and is co-founded by Ameena Sayed of OUP.

Over the past three years they have held all 20 of the children’s literature festivals and four teacher’s literature festivals across Pakistan. An estimated 380,000 children and teachers have attended the programmes so far.

Maham Ali, Programme Manager, CLF Pakistan said: “CLF seeks to promote a reading culture for creativity, imagination and multi-sensory stimulation beyond classrooms and textbooks by providing a unique platform that drives the interest of children towards the joy of reading, self expression and critical thinking.”

Executive Director of Lok Virsa Dr Fouzia Saeed said Lok Virsa was delighted to collaborate with ITA to host the festival.

She said: “It is important for children and youth to be acquainted with folk tales and culture which is an integral part of their heritage. We are also inviting child artists to perform and attend the Festival.”

She further added, “Lok Virsa’s focus is to invest in our children and give them a sound and cultural identity well rooted in our folk heritage. We see no better partner than CLF to move forward.”

The CLF is a social movement inspired by data on low learning levels, and an obsession with textbooks and tests across Pakistan, sacrificing creativity and wonder in children and youth. Over the years, the festival has brought readers, writers, illustrators and publishers of children’s books together - a tradition that the organisers intend to continue.

A number of celebrities including leading authors and writers like Haseena Moin, Kishwar Naheed, Harron Rashid and Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra would be sharing their thoughts with children in different sessions along with renowned vocalist Tina Sani and many others including Zubeida Mustafa, Nargis Sultana, Mosharraf Zaidi, Rafique Tahir, Dr Fouzia Saeed, Zubair Torwali, Rumana Husain, Zoone Hasan, Khaled Anam, Amra Alam, Adeel Hashmi, Izzah Meyer, Sitwat Yusafzai and Haseena Moin.

Maham Ali added, “For two days children from the twin cities will enjoy not only literature but culture, drama, puppet shows, story-telling sessions and many more interesting activities. As always the success of the CLF is due as much to the avid interest and involvement of the children who participate as to the dedication and devotion of the organisers.”

The first day of the event will be devoted to the Teachers Literature Festival (TLF) in which specially designed programmes, session, workshops and performances for teachers will be hosted.

Nargis Sultana, senior programme officer for Open Society Foundation, said the TLF was an opportunity for teachers to voice their views and interact with other professionals and learn in the process.

She said: “The importance of quality education through quality teaching cannot possibly be stressed enough and the TLF is a space for teachers to engage with their peers and share what has worked for them in the classroom.”

Published in Dawn September 23rd, 2015

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