‘Kids Read’, developed by the British Council, and supported by grants from Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), has been supporting many different aspects for the children, teachers, school administration staff and parents of Bangladesh through school events, community events and competitions. This programme aims to reach over 10,000 students from eight primary schools in Dhaka with the objective to build their reading habit and enhance the English Language skills among them.
The British Council and HSBC hosted the event named ‘Boshe Ako’ among the primary school students of Kakoli High School and Chayanaut Nalanda School at their school premises on 15 November 2016. These community events continued until 17 November 2016 in the other participating schools under the ‘Kids Read’ project.
“We are thankful to all our partners, such as HSBC, for their generous support and active involvement,” said Jim Scarth, Deputy Director, British Council, Bangladesh. Robert Hermelin, Head of HR, HSBC, Bangladesh, Abdullah Al Jubayer, Manager, Corporate Sustainability, HSBC and Sarwat Reza, Library Manager, British Council, Bangladesh were present at the event.
Moreover, under the project ‘Kids Read’, the British Council facilitated teachers’ training throughout the month of November 2016 at the Dhaka University campus office. The objectives of the training were to enhance teacher’s proficiency in English language skills, to improve their storytelling skills and let teachers understand how to use graded readers in the classrooms. Around 120 teachers from eight different participating schools took part in the teachers’ training session.
Teachers were trained on different tricks and tactics that they can apply in order to motivate students to read books. These tricks and tactics were presented via Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and using audiovisuals so that the session becomes more engaging. Then, the teachers were encouraged to share their experiences regarding how they motivated students to participate in storytelling, creative writing and the challenges they faced while promoting it. Most of the teachers joined this kind of training session for the first time and expressed their interests to participate in more sessions like this in the future.