More than 6.3 million pupils from 40,000 schools in 15 Arab countries including the UAE will take part in the UAE’s Month of Reading.

Launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on his social media accounts, the campaign aims to get students to read 50 books throughout the academic year.

Speaking on the occasion, Shaikh Mohammad said on his twitter page “Today marks the beginning of the UAE’s Month of Reading at our schools, universities and facilities. We wish all every success. Reading will remain the cornerstone that we lay to establish a generation that leads the future”.

“I was very pleased with the results of the Arab Reading Challenge. The number of students hiked to six million from 40,000 schools across 15 Arab counties. The Reading Challenges does create hope”, he tweeted.

“We have 75,000 supervisors overseeing six million students so that we ensure that each one will have read 50 books by the end of the Academic year. Our civilisation’s resumption begins in schools. My thanks for the UAE Ministry of Education’s teamwork who doubled the number of participating students in the UAE from 160,000 a year ago to 303,000 today. I am proud of you and your work”, Shaikh Mohammad added

Covering various domains, the National Month of Reading will involve more than 1,000 reading events to be staged by around 66 federal and local bodies besides the UAE private sector. The campaign aims to enhance the sustainability of reading by turning it into a comprehensive social habit and attract the largest possible number of participating community members in its activities that target all segments of society across the seven emirates.

The Month of Reading is part of the Arab Reading Challenge launched by Shaikh Mohammad last year. With 3.6 million students taking part in the first edition of the challenge, the second edition which began last November saw the number of students doubling to 6.3 million from the Arab world.

The UAE participating students increased by 100 per cent from 160,000 to 303,000 students. However, Algeria recorded the largest number of students participating in the challenge, with two million students registered so far compared to 610 students last edition, while Kuwait came first in terms of growth in number of participants with 63,000 students registered up to now compared to 15.5 last year.

Last edition, seven-year-old Mohammad Farah Jalood from Algeria was announced the winner of the Arab Reading Challenge.

The “Arab Reading Challenge”, is the largest Arab project to encourage students in the Arab world to read, and aims to encourage reading on a continuous basis through a comprehensive system of incentives and follow-up mechanisms throughout the academic year.

Those interested to know more about the month’s events can visit http://www.reading.gov.ae

source : gulfnews