The teaching and learning of German language will now be a part of the Roots School System’s curriculum under the German Language Programme initiated in collaboration with The Goethe Institute. The initiative will facilitate Rootsians in acquiring bilingual skills to avail opportunities available in German universities for higher education, youth camps, student and teacher exchange programmes and better career opportunities for staff and students.
Roots School System also officially launched German Cultural Club at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) recently in which German Ambassador Dr. Michael Koch and Mehrein Qureshi, wife of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were the guests of honour.
Mehrein encouraged the latest trend of learning different languages and acquiring fluency in them, and hoped that more schools and embassies would recognise the importance of teaching other languages. The German Cultural Club would encourage the aesthetic aspect to be developed in all genres, be it poetry, dance, music or painting. The club would hold one major event every month and publish a newsletter to highlight the events.
Coordinator Pash Programme, Germany, Mrs Evelyn Singh, while speaking on the occasion, said there are certain skills needed to succeed in the world and one of them is learning a language. The Roots School has become one of the 1,500 partner schools in this initiative as a result of an MoU signed between the Roots School System and The Goethe Institute in August 2009.
She said since German language is widely spoken in Europe there is a need to explore its literature, philosophy, science and technology. Learning the language would not limit itself to the classroom, instead it would open new vistas for the students. Evelyn Singh announced that summer camps would be held again this year, funded by the Foreign Office, both at the teacher and student level.
Director Roots School System Khadija Omair said the purpose of establishing the German Cultural Club is to provide an intercultural understanding of similarities and differences between Pakistan and Germany, adding that emphasis on the German language is given in order to establish a multicultural integration at a larger scale.
A Grand Cultural Fiesta, in which the students presented traditional dances of both the countries, was highly appreciated by the parents and guests present on the occasion. The students also sang popular Pakistani and German songs, holding flags of the two countries, integrating our culture and displaying unity. Students of the German language class, clad in traditional German dresses, performed a Bavarian dance.
Later, Dr. Michael Koch and Mehrein Qureshi awarded badges to the German Cultural Club office-bearers, while school mementos were presented to the guests of honour.