Dubai: More than 10.5 million Arab students will be competing in the third edition of the Arab Reading Challenge for prizes valued at Dh11 million.
Winners will also include outstanding schools and supervisors. What sets this year’s edition apart is that it has attracted Arab students not residing in Arab countries, since His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, officially expanded the range of participants to include Arab students from around the world. This announcement was made during last year’s edition.
This led to an increase in the number of participating nations from 16 Arab nations in 2017 to 44 Arab and foreign countries in 2018.
The number of students taking part in the ARC this year also increased by more than 25 per cent compared to 2017. Meanwhile, 86,000 supervisors are participating this year, in addition to 52,000 schools, which is an increase from 41,000 schools that competed in last year’s challenge.
Najla Al Shamsi, Secretary-General of the Arab Reading Challenge Initiative, said that diligent supervisors and parents who continued to encourage students to read must be proud of what was achieved by millions of participants who participated in the Arab Reading Challenge’s earlier editions. She said that ARC has boosted the knowledge of students and made them capable of choosing their fields of study in school, university and life and able to contribute to the development and prosperity of their nations.
Al Shamsi highlighted the leading role played by ministries of education and culture and institutions that have supported the challenge in different participating countries. She praised their cooperation that resulted in expanding the initiative’s reach. She also hailed the immense efforts of school administrations and teachers that have supervised the students and guided them on how to diversify their choices of books.
