The British Council and Daffodil Education Network jointly launched a nationwide book reading competition today at the Dhaka University campus office in observance of the ‘World Book Day 2017’ and to commemorate 401th death anniversary of famous bard William Shakespeare.
World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books, and most importantly, it is a celebration of reading. In fact, it is the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world. This is the 20th year of the celebration of World Book Day.
The main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children and adults to explore the pleasures of reading books by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. The British Council is organising book reading competition to celebrate World Book Day since 2013. Everyone who loves books can take part in the book reading competition. It will be held under four categories: Group-A (class 1 to V), Group-B (Class VI to VIII), Group-C (class IX to XII) and Group-D (any adult). The online registration form will be available at the British Council website. Anyone can register from the British Council, Daffodil Education Network and a number of other registration points across the country.
The event was graced by the presence of Md. Nazrul Islam Khan, Curator, Bangabandhu Memorial Museum's, Bangladesh as the chief guest. Md Sabur Khan, CIP, Chairman, Daffodil Group and Sarwat Masuda Reza, Head Cultural Centre, British Council was also present in the event among other guests.
Sarwat Masuda Reza said, “It is with knowledge passed from one generation to the other that the human race has reached the pinnacle of civilisation. And to this date, books have been the best store of information for people to extract knowledge. Reading books is also a highly productive mode of entertainment. I believe that with initiatives such as this, people will nurture the habit of reading books in people of all ages to continue the passing of knowledge.”
“Over the years, Daffodil Family has been a dedicated contributor towards nurturing of knowledge especially by the youth. We are glad to have been a part of this global initiative in Bangladesh, and we commit to be associated with activities such as this in coming times as well”, said Md Sabur Khan.
The theme of this year’s competition is ‘Own a book, read a book’, meaning the participants will read a book as per their choice from a selected collection and will not need to return it. They will then attend a test in mid-September 2017 which will be held at Daffodil University premises. There will not be any assessment test for group A. They must write a summary or draw a picture based on the story of the book they read and send it to the British Council by Mid-September 2017. The lucky winner will be awarded laptops and other prizes. The prize will be distributed through a ceremony in December 2017. All the participants will be given a certificate of attendance.
In 2016, the World Book Day Book Reading Competition was celebrated nationwide with 1800 participants.