Attracting children towards Urdu through nursery rhymes

The question of how to attract children towards Urdu language was discussed at an interactive session, ‘Kaaf se Kahani’, on the Karachi Literature Festival’s second day on Saturday.

The session featured educator Rumana Hussain, singer Bilal Maqsood, artiste Beenish Umer and Peek Freans Gluco Senior Brand Manager Hataf Shahab and actor Sarwat Gillani who served as the moderator.

A large part of the discussion revolved around how music, jingles and nursery rhymes could be used to bring the children towards Urdu. The event’s highlight was warmly engaging and language-appropriate nursery rhymes launched by Peek Freans Gluco in collaboration with Maqsood.

The discussion revolved around the importance of Urdu, its infrequent usage among the younger generation and how today’s young minds were losing their touch with the national language. The speakers highlighted concerns about the dearth of good-quality Urdu content.

They said many young children were viewing such content that was not attuned to our social and moral values. They stressed the need for inculcating interest for Urdu in the children.

The panel unanimously agreed that this could only happen when there was content in Urdu that taught the children not just about morals but also in a way that was creative and entertaining.

The panellists called for a paradigm shift in Urdu curriculum in schools and educational institutions in order to teach children how they could express themselves eloquently in the language. Gillani pointed out the lack of engaging Urdu content for children in the media stating that our children were learning foreign content and moving away from the basics of Urdu.

Rumana lamented that nowadays even parents were not interested in seeing their children becoming proficient in Urdu. She narrated an incident when a parent complained to the school about a teacher speaking to the child in Urdu.

“Content is a way for children to learn - especially when it comes to developing language skills,” said Aaminah Saeed, GM Marketing.

Maqsood remarked that it was a dream project for him. He explained that he had to compose, write and sing eight original Urdu nursery rhymes for children in order to give them something to hold on to while growing up.

The session ended on the note that various elements of society must work in tandem to keep the balance of Urdu content available for our younger generation to consume, learn and enjoy.