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When Reading is Pleasure

SHARJAH — The onus of activating youngsters into reading has been taken up by schools as well. Lower grades, that are not bogged down by intense calculations and thick volumes to memorise have been putting time to good use by organising ‘edutaining’ activities.

“In today’s media governed times children are attracted as if by a strong magnetic force to computers. The casualty in this is the healthy habit of reading. So we thought reading needs to be marketed afresh,” said Priti Kalinani, supervisor of the junior school at the Ibn Seena English High School, Sharjah. Teachers of the junior school organised a Reading Fest where children exchanged books and participated in a quiz on fairy tales, unscrambling names of books and authors and got a chance to depict characters from books.

“It was a skill sharpener. We succeeded in reviving and enriching this pleasurable and precious leisure activity,” she added.

The Sharjah American International School recently invited 14 times Middle East Rally Champion Mohammed bin Sulayem, who read aloud ‘Me and My Left Hand’, in Arabic to 30 curious nine and 10-year-olds.The event was a part of the Knowledge without Borders initiative aimed at encouraging reading as a pastime within the emirate and beyond.

“As we progress, kids are spending more times in front of screens and less time reading. The Internet has a lot of material but is from unreliable sources. When you write a book there is research that has gone into it,” said Sulayem.

Students then got to select an Arabic storybook they would take back home to share with their parents.“I like reading books with comedy,” said Alya Alshaer who took time to decide on the ‘right’ book for her taste.

afshan@khaleejtimes.com

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