Dubai: Results of the 15th cycle of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performers were announced on Tuesday, with 186 winners emerging out of a field of 345 participants from the UAE.
Three categories witnessed the highest participation namely the ‘Outstanding Student Award’, the ‘Distinguished Teacher Award’ and the ‘Applied Education Research Award’. The Outstanding Student Award attracted the maximum number of participants at 256, out of whom 162 won.
As for educational districts, out of the 327 participants from the educational districts in the UAE, Dubai sent 104 participants, the highest number.
Speaking on the occasion, Jamal Al Muhairi, Vice-Chairman of the board of trustees and the secretary general of the award, observed: “The Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award helps promote innovation and excellence in performance which is an important step towards one day having a whole class that consists only of outstanding students, which is an aim we hope to achieve in the future.”
Khalifa Al Suwaidi, member of the board of trustees and chief coordinator for the central judging panel, spoke about the evaluation process of the award. “The evaluation process of the applicants went through three stages: collecting the applications, studying the papers, then shortlisting them and finally interviewing the participants personally to make sure that the paper matches the character of the participant.”
The Arab Award category, a regular feature of the award, was overlooked this year because none of the participants met the set criteria. “We got 24 participants from 8 countries; however none of them met the required criteria and so we blocked it for this year and hope that they will have better luck next year,” Al Suwaidi said.
There were 37 participants from the GCC out of whom 16 won. Saudi Arabia had the largest number of winners, with a total of nine awards, among GCC teams.
The prize distribution ceremony of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performers will be held on April 24.
Noor Nazzal is a trainee at Gulf News
