DOHA: As part of regular activities and events to encourage reading habit among children, Qatar National Library (QNL) is hosting a training programme throughout October.
The free programmes will be for children of all ages on the Scholastic children’s databases, one of the biggest publishers of children’s books in the world. The programme is organised by the children’s section of QNL.
Children in grades between pre-KG and grade five would benefit from the programme.
It is conducted by QNL as research suggests that reading is less common among children in Qatar. The Scholastic collection includes the ‘BookFlix’, a great interactive literacy resource for pre-KG to Grade three, ‘TrueFlix’, an informative programme, which presents science and social studies for students in Grades three, four and five and ‘Grolier Online’, a comprehensive source of non-fiction content for children from the age of eight.
The children’s section is also offering free training sessions, including how to use the ‘Edutechnoz’ online database, which helps children learn Arabic in a fun way through games. Other sessions focus on ‘OneClickDigital’ that provides digital audio-books of diverse content in English, and ‘Zinio’, which offers access to the full version of hundreds of popular magazines, such as ‘Zamoof’ (kids education), and the ‘Junior Reference Collection’, which delivers access to authoritative and relevant reference content in various areas.
According to a study by Childhood Cultural Centre, over 30 percent of Qatari children say they don’t have time to read, while 26 percent complain about not having access to books of their interest.
Sixteen percent did not find any compelling reason to read, while 15 percent faced problem selecting the right books. The survey found that out of the small number who have an interest in reading, two-third preferred fiction and books on adventure, while the rest liked reading books on religion and poetry.
Another study on undergraduates in universities in Education City suggests that at least 43.7 percent university students read for pleasure, about 31.2 percent sometimes read for pleasure and 19.8 percent read every day.The Peninsula
