Syrian Culture Ministry launches e-Audio book for children amid criticism

An electronic audio book for children was launched Sunday by Ministry of Culture to be companion to paper book in the light of the proliferation of e-readers.

Culture Minister said that the e-book will help children pronounce vocabularies correctly and receive the important information in a lovely way. 

“Now, the e-book deals with the Arabic language in a simple way to clarify information for children, who faces the culture of war that invaded our country through several conspiracies,” added Issam Khalil.

He pointed out that the national strategy of child culture seeks to turn dreams into reality and to teach children patriotism plus the values of goodness, truth and beauty.

His remarks were made during the ceremony of launching the e-book in the national al-Assad library.

The e-book will achieve great success in the life of the Syrian children, provided that development continues in this regard, some media reports said.

Criticism about e-book project

However, the Tishreen newspaper played down the minister’s remarks on the e-book as he ignored the current education circumstances.

“Syrian school children have not been immune from the global war being launched on the country. They have been partners in all circumstances, but they insist on overcoming the obstacles and going to their schools,” the paper said, indicating that power cut is a main obstacle.

It suggested to improve students’ psychology and to appoint well-qualified teachers of Arabic language to reach the same goals of the e-book.

Last August, the ministry launched the demo version of the e-audio book to allow children to use up-to-date technology to receive information through e-book that will correct their pronunciation in reading, according to the Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper.

BasmaQaddour