LAHORE: A three-day mega Teachers’ and Children’s Literature Festival began with hundreds of teachers participating in various sessions ranging from art of reading with expression to creative writing workshops and employing various techniques to make classroom activities interesting at Children’s Library Complex on Thursday.

The festival being organised by the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, Oxford University Press in collaboration with Open Society Foundations, CLC and the Punjab School Education Department was opened by Punjab School Education Secretary Abdul Jabbar Shaheen.

Some government schools’ teachers said it seemed a lifetime opportunity to participate in the festival and attend different sessions that not only opened their minds but also motivated and inspired them to read and deliver best of the best education to their students.

“I am taking a lot of advices from different sessions and visualise that implementing those techniques will help me conduct class in lively manner and involving students for their better learning,” a teacher, Muhammad Naveed, said.

Another teacher, who wished not to be identified, said the festival seemed the only activity that attracted public schoolteachers to attend enthusiastically unlike other duties like controlling dengue, vaccination and election affair.

“This is the only day out of school that has not been wasted but given a lot of training to impart quality education to our students,” teacher Saleem Ahmed said.

Nadia, a private chain schoolteacher, said the sessions were extremely interesting and inspiring. She said critical thinking needed to be employed by teachers to motivate their pupils to go for creativity.

The day began with seven sessions simultaneously beginning at different halls and rooms named after classical and popular literature, authors, poets and characters, such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Waris Shah, Kitab Ghar, Bulleh Shah, Manto ki gali, Bano Qudsia, Ashfaque Ahmed, Soofi Ghulam Mustafa Tabbasum, Dastaan Sraa’aay, Bagh-e-Sheherezade, making them come alive in the imagination of children and youth. She said various celebrities would also participate in the festival.

Teachers appreciated storytelling workshop by Nadia Jamil; critical thinking in education session conducted by Neelam Husain, Rafia Ali and Jamil Najam; creative writing workshops by Amra Alam and Imrana Maqsood.

A group of teachers, who attended a session “How to write a drama” by Haseena Moin were jubilant and committed that they would try to introduce staging of plays in their schools. There were also sessions about making education inclusive, animation and other teacher-related subjects.

At the end of the day, a play by Sanjan Nagar Public education Trust students “Jogi Huay Kay Aa” directed by Huma Safdar was staged.

The two-day 15th Children’s Literature Festival will begin on Friday (today).

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2014