AKA Dhaka celebrates first-ever Book Week

From 5-9 February, the Aga Khan Academy Dhaka celebrated the first annual Book Week on the Academy premises, with this year’s theme for the event being "Connect to your library and read a book". An exciting array of events and activities were featured during the event.

The week started with the DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) activity. Every morning throughout the week, a time was set in the schedule for students, faculty and staff, and Head of Academy Bill O’Hearn announced to everyone to “drop everything and read.” The activity encouraged everyone to prioritise reading over any activity they were engaged in. A book fair for the students and parents also took place on the Academy premises, showcasing a vast collection of books from various authors and publishers.

Primary Years Programme (PYP) students designed bookmarks as part of their awareness activity on reducing the chance of damaging books by folding pages in the Junior School Library. They also donated all the bookmarks to the library to use in future. During the event, students of the Middle Years Programme also participated in a bookmark design competition in the Senior School Library.

The Academy also welcomed authors Ms Mihika Khan in the Junior School Library and Mr Saad Z. Hossain in the Senior School Library as guest speakers. Grade 3 and Grade 8 students, respectively, participated in the sessions. PYP students also enjoyed a puppet show in the amphitheatre.

“The puppet show was a lot of fun,” said Grade 3 student Zohan Javed. “My friends and I had a great time.”

On the final day, the Academy organised a special assembly where students and faculty members participated in poem recitation, storytelling and dance performances. A special highlight of the day was the book character parade, where all students and faculty dressed up as their favourite book characters and marched in a parade. In the evening, the Senior School Library organised a cultural event with many fun activities for all staff and faculty.

Head Librarian Syeda Mukta Begum was elated to see the active participation of everyone and believes the event will reignite the habit of reading for many.

“Everyone at the Academy thoroughly enjoyed and participated in the activities designed for the Book Week.” Ms Mukta said. “I hope this will encourage us to explore the joy of reading more than ever.”