Winners of Mohammad Bin Rashid Arabic Language Award honoured

Dubai: The winners of the fifth Mohammad Bin Rashid Arabic Language Award were honoured on Thursday at a ceremony during the opening of the eighth International Arabic Language Conference.

Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum honoured the winners who were selected among 223 entries. This year the Award’s organising committee received 2,088 entries.

Chairman of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Arabic Language Award Mohammad Al Murr said the award is attracting significant attention in the Arab world due to the support of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. He added that the award aims to establish the UAE as a centre of excellence in Arabic language.

“The award identifies and honours exceptional initiatives in different categories, raises awareness of the importance of personal and institutional initiatives to develop the Arabic language and encourages young people to innovate in the way they promote the Arabic language,” said Al Murr.

“The award also promotes Arabisation in different fields of knowledge and seeks to benefit from the experiences of cultures across the world,” he added.

Winners of this year’s edition of the award include:

Technology category:

• Best initiative in using social networking or intelligent technical application for learning and publishing Arabic — Birzeit University, Palestine.

• Best initiative to develop and publish Arabic digital content or Arabic language processors — Arabic Wikipedia Team, Tunisia.

Education Category:

• Best way to teach and learn Arabic in early education — Lughati Initiative, United Arab Emirates.

• Best initiative for teaching Arabic in school education (Grades 1 to 12) — EmSAT Arabic, United Arab Emirates.

• Best initiative to teach Arabic to non-Arabic speakers — Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), Saudi Arabia

Culture, Intellect and Knowledge Society Category:

• Best artistic, cultural or intellectual work to serve the Arabic language — Abjjad Initiative, Jordan.

• Best initiative to promote reading culture and knowledge society — Reading Network, Morocco.

Linguistic Policy, Planning and Arabisation Category:

• Best language policy and planning initiative — Mahmood Mohammad Abdel Atti, Egypt.

• Best localisation or translation project — Eman Mohammad Bushnak, Jordan.

Media and Communication Category:

• Best work in Arabic language in electronic and social media — The Book Club, United Arab Emirates