Young Learners in action!
British Council's Young Learners' Centre (BCYLC) recently celebrated its 6th Anniversary Festival at the British Council, sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and RC Cola. BCYLC is a unique club for learning and entertainment for children aged between 4-15 years of age. Children here read books, use educational CDs and videos. This club also hosts a series of activities through out the year, including film shows, art competitions, debate and various other activities to enrich and develop the young mind and soul.
This festival included a Mina Bazaar, a painting exhibition, a cultural programme, a magic show and a dance party specially for kids. The mina bazaar consisted mainly of the mothers of these children. More than 20 stalls stood from 10 am to 5 pm, selling samosas, fuchkas, cold drinks, clothes, CDs, artefacts and a variety of other bits and pieces. The cultural show portrayed a lot of young talents from various schools of the city. There were 'bunches' of children singing their hearts out with 'The wheels of the bus go round and round' and nursery rhymes like 'Baa baa black sheep'. There were also solo performances of playing instruments, folk dances and singing Rabindra Sangeet. Prizes were given to all the children and a best performance award was given to the Methodist School.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. It was truly a delight to see a whole bunch of kids confidently facing the crowd and performing their feats. Eager and nervous mothers filled the crowd. Their excitement at seeing their loved ones performing on stage and doing exactly as instructed at home, took me back to my school days! The children later delighted themselves on the magic show conducted by Ali Raj. They watched in awe as he produced colourful handkerchiefs, 'sprinkly' strings and a live duck from practically nothing.
Most of the kids were waiting for the dance party which was held right in the end. The auditorium was even designed with special disco lights to bring in the effects. However, the number of kids began to move out of the dance party and older people began to fill the spaces.
This festival is held every year and really proves to be a good personality development programme for the children of Dhaka city.