Wesbite: STORYKIT Program

Children today live in an environment that is often hostile to their interests. In order to enable them to deal with the world they have inherited, the best we can do is help them become self-learners. That way, they can acquire the knowledge they need to overcome the challenges they face.

Becoming a reader is the first step on the path to becoming a self-learner. Once children get hooked on reading, there is no stopping them on the path to learning; they will educate themselves and the world.

I founded the Storykit Program in 2015 as a method of teaching children the Urdu language through stories. The aim of the program is to teach children the Urdu language, its classical literature, and its folklore through engaging, age-appropriate stories. The Storykit Program was the subject of my Harvard University Fellowship in Spring 2017.

The STORYKIT Program introduces children to reading by building their engagement with stories through participation in interactive storytelling and games. This leads to children becoming interested in reading stories, engaging with the plots through games, and developing the confidence to narrate the stories themselves.

The STORYKIT Program has been piloted in two private school systems in Lahore. Recently, it was piloted for UNESCO in twenty government primary schools, and ten Non-Formal Basic Education centres located in district Muzaffargarh, Punjab, In addition to developing the reading habit in children, the program demonstrably helped them develop self-confidence, improve communications skills, and increase school attendance and enrollment.

The 6-min documentary shared here recorded some of the program's successes.