‘Translate a Story' Initiative Surely a Milestone: Edu Min

Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni today said the initiative of ‘Translate a Story' initiative, a book translation campaign to facilitate home-based early age reading, would surely be a milestone for country’s children during the challenging time of covid-19.

“We have been passing a critical time as the covid-19 hit Bangladesh like any other country of the world. In such a challenging juncture, the initiative ‘Translate a Story initiative’, taken by UNESCO and other associates would surely be a milestone,” told Dipu Moni.

She was addressing the virtual launching event of “Translate a Story Initiative in Bangladesh” here today, organized by the Ministry of Education, Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU) and UNESCO Dhaka Office and supported by a2i, ICT Division, Bangladesh, said a press release.

The Minister said, “The Translate a Story Initiative during this pandemic is really an effective step. Considering the health safety of the students, we have not opened the educational institutions in Bangladesh but online classes for the students are in full swing.”

Deputy Minister of Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury MP and Md Mahbub Hossain, Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Ms. Beatrice Kaldun, Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to Bangladesh addressed the program as special guests, reports BSS.

The Translate a Story initiative is a book translation campaign to facilitate home-based early age reading aiming to provide high-quality reading material to children in the language they speak at home.

More than 300 children’s books in Bangla and 100 books in five ethnic minority languages were translated and proofread in the framework of the campaign.

The prime driving force behind this initiative was to make reading enjoyable to the children in this long unprecedented situation of COVID-19 pandemic, read the release.

While addressing, the Deputy Minister of Education labeled this initiative a most timely intervention.

Expressing deep concern for the students as they have been facing a huge psychological challenge to cope with the pandemic situation, the Deputy Minister hoped that the initiative would certainly create a breathing space of pleasure and enjoyment and remove monotony and the psychological challenges.

Teachers, students and parents can easily get access to the translated books through the open online platforms of Global Digital Library (https://digitallibrary.io), Story Weaver (https://storyweaver.org.in/translate), African Storybook (https://www.africanstorybook.org) , Let’s Read (https://reader.letsreadasia.org/?uiLang=4846240843956224).