Page 231 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer
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3. Corresponding with 4 weeks of a month, each class VI of a public
school was divided into reading circles comprising 4 children each,
and each reading circle used to be provided one copy of the selected
magazine on the first working day of every month. Each of these 4
children in every group was supposed to keep the possession of the
magazine for one week, thus completing the rotation in 28 days.
4. The order of handing over the magazine was required to be changed
every month. For example, a student in a reading circle who got
magazine last of all in one month might get the magazine in the first
week in the next month, and so on.
5. Once the 28 days’ cycle was complete, the rest of 2-3 days of the
month were to be utilised by the relevant Urdu teacher to arrange
discussions amongst the children in the Urdu period on the contents
of the magazine and the learnings which the students had made,
such as what did they like the most, what they did not like, any new
word or term they learnt, and other things of the sort. Those
discussions were in fact used as a subtle tool to encourage and
appreciate those students who had been reading the magazine
attentively and were thus able to take active part in discussions, and
make others, who had not done the task of reading at all or had done
so halfheartedly, realise that they should also do justice to the task
in future. However, while doing so, it was to be ensured that the
students took the exercise of book reading not as a burden but as a
joyful activity.
6. It was also expected that not only the students who kept the custody
of magazine for a week would read the magazine but their brothers
and sisters at home would also get an opportunity to do so. In other
words, we were targeting our students as well as their siblings
through this campaign of promotion of book reading.
7. Once the reading cycle was complete every month, the magazines
were placed in library so that the students of other classes could
access them too.
LAUNCHING OF THE ONLINE MAGAZINE, ROSHNI
It was further thought that merely book reading would not achieve the
required results. In order to truly inculcate the love of literature in our
children and polish their skills, a platform should also be made available to
them to express themselves and give vent to their creativity, critical thinking
and imagination. Also, needless to say here, unless used, a skill remains
latent only and might even be lost. After thorough deliberations, it was
decided that in this age of information technology such a platform should
ideally be web-based as it would not only save costs but would also give
greater flexibility. Moreover, there would be no space constraints for the
contributors. Accordingly, Roshni, an online magazine, was launched on May
2, 2019 for the students of the public schools in Muzaffargarh, where the
students could send their contributions of all types and genres, such as
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