The British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Philip Barton CMG OBE, on Thursday hosted a storytelling session for school children here in Islamabad.
The event was organised by Paramount Publishing Enterprise, which exclusively distributes books from Ladybird UK. The event, at the British High Commission in Islamabad, showcased some of the high quality British books available to parents and teachers in Pakistan and aimed to promote reading amongst young people in Pakistan.
At the event, the British High Commissioner read the story, the ‘Enormous Turnip’ to the children. Speaking at the event, he said, storytelling and reading to children is a really important way of connecting with your children and helping them to learn, read and write. It can also open up young minds to a world of creativity, imagination and understanding, he added.
“I remember fondly reading to my children some of the books available from Ladybird, so it is great news for both the young and their parents in Pakistan that some of the best children’s books from the UK are available here”, he said.
He said the UK Government is also investing heavily in the children of Pakistan and their education through the work of the British Council and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
He said more than six million primary school children have benefitted from the DFID’s support in Pakistan since 2011. “We have also established an innovative programme, the PEELI support programme that by 2017 will have trained 300,000 primary teachers of English in Punjab”, he added. He hoped that the event will encourage young boys and girls to read, and to discover the riches books and reading brings.