Page 232 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

stories, essays, jokes, poetry, paintings, news and the like, through their
respective school administrations. It was also decided that students would
be engaged at all stages of magazine preparation, i.e. writing, editing, proof
reading etc., to give them relevant exposure, and editorial committees were
notified accordingly. The Roshni also had the honour of being the first online
magazine for the children in Pakistan.

PROMOTION OF URDU
Urdu, unfortunately, is increasingly becoming irrelevant in this era of
information technology and globalisation. The younger generation is
gradually drifting away from it, and prefers to learn and use English, where
possible. Something extraordinary needed to be done, at all levels, otherwise
our national language might totally become irrelevant in the coming decades.
With this background, the District Administration Muzaffargarh embarked
upon a comprehensive strategy whereby the students of public school were
exposed to Urdu reading and writing through aforementioned tools of
promotion of book culture, launching of online magazine and the like. It was
believed that such interventions would, in all likelihood, give a new lifeline to
Urdu, at least to the extent of Muzaffargarh.

CHILDREN LITERATURE FESTIVAL
The efforts aimed at inculcating
love for literature in younger
children reached their climax in
holding of a 2-day Children
Literature Festival in
collaboration with the Idara-e-
Taleem-o-Aagahi in
Muzaffargarh on October 3-4,
2019. Oxfam and Oxford
University Press were amongst
other leading collaborators.

The festival which was held at
Sardar Kaurey Khan Higher
Secondary School, offered a
variety of activities such as book
reading, storytelling, theatre,
robotics, panel discussions,
tableaus, folk performances,
screening of documentaries,
sessions on rights awareness,
personal hygiene, self-
protection, and more. A large
number of book stalls were also established at the venue and so were those

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