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Dubai: 2 winners announced for this year's Arab Reading Challenge

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid honoured the champions from the UAE and Qatar

The UAE’s Amnah Mohammad Al Mansoori and Qatar’s Abdullah Mohammad Abdullah Al Berri were declared co-champions of the Arab Reading Challenge's 7th edition. They were honoured by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Tuesday.

This year’s edition saw the highest number of participants since the inception of the reading challenge in 2015. Around 24.8 million students, including 22,506 people of determination — representing 188,000 schools under the guidance of around 150,000 supervisors from 46 countries — took part in this year’s challenge.

The Arab Reading Challenge encourages students from Grade 1 to 12 to read literary works in the Arabic language, and promote the use of their mother tongue. The competition also highlights the rich Arabic language across science, literature and other areas of study.

Proud of the sons and daughters of the Arab world

Sheikh Mohammed congratulated the winners and expressed his confidence in the ability of the youth to keep the Arabic language alive.

Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after the awarding ceremony, he posted in Arabic: “I’m proud of the sons and daughters of the Arab world who gathered today in Dubai in the finals of the Arab Reading Challenge that saw participation from more than 24 million students from 188,000 schools in 46 countries.”

“We congratulate Abdullah Mohammad Abdullah Al Berri from Qatar and Amnah Mohammad Al Mansoori from the UAE for jointly winning first place. We see a large number of young Arabs leaning towards reading. This reflects pursuit of knowledge and excellence. We see in them, God willing, a more beautiful future for our Arab world,” Sheikh Mohammed added.

Organised annually by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), the 7th edition of the Arab Reading Challenge witnessed an 11 per cent increase in participation as compared to last year.

More reading champions

Aside from Abdullah Mohammad Abdullah Al Berri, winners in the other categories were also crowned on Tuesday.

Yousuf bin Dawoud from Tunisia was declared the reading champion of the newly introduced 'people of determination' category; while 18-year-old Mohammed Abdulraqib Ali Ahmed Al Kawkabani, who represented Malaysia, was declared the community champion among non-Arab countries.

Abdulraqib was awarded by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai.

Originally from Yemen, Abdulraqib earlier told Khaleej Times his dream is to become a college professor teaching world history.

The King Abdullah ll School for Excellence in Jordan won the 'best school' award, while Samaher Al Sawaei from the same school was judged as the 'most outstanding supervisor'.

A Dh500,000 cash prize each was given to the Arab Reading Champion while Dawood, the winner in the 'people of determination' category, received Dh200,000. The 'outstanding supervisor' got Dh300,000 and the 'community champion' (from non-Arab countries) was awarded Dh100,000 prize. The 'best school' (King Abdullah ll School for Excellence) received Dh1 million to boost its services and ability to encourage more students to read more and expand their knowledge.

Pride of Arab nations

The awarding ceremony opened with a special presentation, titled the National Anthem of Arab Countries, an operetta featuring a selection of artists singing clips from the national anthems of Arab countries.

A solemn recitation of the Holy Quran followed and the opening ceremony also included a montage of milestones from the previous editions of the Arab Reading Challenge.

The awarding ceremony was held at Dubai Opera in front of an audience of more than 1,500 people, which included national and community champions.

The Arab Reading Challenge is the largest pan-Arab reading project first launched in September 2015. Participants are first selected in the elimination stage that starts at class level, then school level, before proceeding to the level of the educational district, directorate or governorate, leading up to the selection of the top 10 students from each country before filtering down the national winners, and over-all grand winners.

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