The British Council Bangladesh Cultural Centre has hosted the grand gala event of its ‘Play Learn Act’ project, which started in 2016 aiming to encourage primary school children to read English story books and develop their reading and language skills in English by participating in various community events.

The programme was held on March 19 evening at the Fuller Road premises of British Council Bangladesh in Dhaka, according to a release issued today.

The ‘Play, Learn, Act’ project started in January 2016, developed by the British Council, and supported by grants from the HSBC.

As part of the project, the British Council developed small libraries in 20 participating schools and trained more than 100 teachers on interactive teaching system. Art competitions, interactive storytelling sessions, and assessment tests were arranged covering more than 22,000 students within a three-year period of time. Through these events, the students developed their language skills, reading habits in English and explored their creativity.

At the end of each year, a gala event is held to hand over prizes to the winners and in continuation, to that, a grand gala and a closing ceremony of the project was held this year too.

General Manager (Libraries) of Bangladesh Bank Mahbubur Rahman, District Primary Education Officer Aleya Ferdousi Shikha, HSBC Bangladesh Country Head of Legal and Regulatory Compliance Shaulee Kamal Khan, Deputy Director of British Council Bangladesh Andrew Newton, and Head of British Council Bangladesh Cultural Centre Tanvir Alim were present at the event.

In his welcome speech, Andrew Newton shared how the British Council works on such a project and tries to build a strong relationship with government institutions.

Shaulee Kamal Khan shared HSBC’s view on supporting such projects and their expectations, and also thanked the British Council for their effort to implement the project.

Mahbubur Rahman praised the idea of Play, Learn, Act and thanked everyone behind the whole project. He also stated the necessity of such projects to develop the education system of the country.

Afterwards, one of the winners shared her experience of the Play, Learn, Act project and what she learned from it.

The next session of the ceremony was hosted by Maliha Mohsin, who presented an interactive storytelling session. All the children who participated in the event also took part in the session.

In the prize giving ceremony, 95 students from 20 government primary schools received their winner medals, crest, and gift bags. Then crests were handed over to all the teachers, Thana Education Officers (TEO) and the District Primary Education Officers (DPEO) in recognition of their effort behind the project.

The community events arranged under the project were designed to develop essential life and future employability skills of the students.

Moreover, the volunteers engaged with its implementation were able to develop their interpersonal skills, sense of contributing to the society and connecting to the root level of creating a community bonding, which is a key focus of the British Council.