UAE announces law on reading
Published: Wed 4 May 2016, 4:33 PM
Last updated: Wed 4 May 2016, 5:50 PM
Yet another landmark initiative to develop a reading culture among the people of UAE.
By the end of the year, a law on reading will be formed along with a 10-year plan spending Dh100m to make reading a habit among the Emirati population.
The 10-year strategy also includes a full month dedicated to reading, which this year is going to be October and from 2017 onward, will be March.
UAE on the path to excel: Shaikh Khalifa
His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE, launched the National Reading Law on Tuesday, as part of a 10-year plan to encourage reading among the people of the UAE.
On the occasion, Shaikh Khalifa said: "The UAE has moved during the past few decades from a country seeking to reduce illiteracy to a country seeking global competition in technical and scientific fields. Reading and knowledge are our path to excel and compete.
"All reading policies and strategies are policies for building the nation and establishing educated, conscious, empowered and tolerant people. Our goal is to prepare our future generations to achieve developmental leaps, underpin our national leadership goals, strengthen our competitiveness and achieve our future vision for the UAE.
"The goal of the Reading Law is to provide a sound basis for lifelong learning for all members of our community and enhance the mental, intellectual and cultural assets of our people," he added.
"The Reading Law will institutionalise and sustain efforts to make reading a key element of the work, jurisdiction and mission of a number of government agencies."
reporters@khaleejtimes.com
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Reacting on his twitter handle, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: "Inculcating reading in the minds of the next generation is long term work, and it has a deep effect."
"The strategy of reading is a road map for building reading and a civilised society, keeping abreast of changes, leading in development and accepting all cultures.
"There is no knowledge economy without knowledge societies."
Mohammed Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Future, launched the new national strategy for reading at the ongoing Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on Tuesday, in the presence of five other ministers and officials.
While introducing the new law for reading, Al Gergawi said: "We have a problem with reading in the region, with knowledge. We talked about it, at federal and local government levels and we see that to create a culture of creativity and knowledge means to create a culture of change. This starts with first adopting new rules."
"The axis of our 10 years reading strategy is a law on reading. We are already working on it and it will be out by the end of the year," he added.
Both the long-term plan and the law will target every home in the country, individuals as well as public and private institutions, and, of course, schools and universities.
According to Gergawi, researches conducted since the declaration of Year of Reading last December have shown that the residents do not have a healthy reading habit, particularly among the Emirati nationals.
The study has found that 70 per cent of the population do not read any books, and even students only read four books per year, and this number decreases when they go to universities.
Through the new reading law, the government hopes to change this situation and get 50 per cent of Emirati adults and 80 per cent of students to read at least 20 books per year, to start with.
"The law will have 30 national initiatives, six main objectives and six sectors," said Al Gergawi.
5 key features of national reading strategy
> A month dedicated to reading
> October will the month of reading this year
> From 2017, March will be the month of reading
> 30 national initiatives with six main objectives under six sectors
> 50% Emirati adults and 80% students to read 20 books a year
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What other ministries are going to doThe ministries of health, education, culture, community development and cabinet affairs are all involved in the strategy, each with its own project.
Hussain Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, said wants to turn reading into a source of education for students and empower all teachers to inspire their students to read.
"It will be mandatory for students to read certain books at certain age," he said.
Al Hammadi also suggested reading programmes during the long summer holidays and urged more teachers to get involved in their students reading habits than the 53 per cent who do so presently.
Ministry of Health and Prevention Abdulrahman Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention (MoHP), announced several initiatives under the national reading strategy, including reading to infants and reading to the sick.
"Just six minutes of reading help decrease the level of anxiety by 60 per cent," said Al Owais.
He also pointed out that 60 per cent of a child's mind is formed from zero to six months and reading to a newborn would have great health benefits.
"That's why we came up with the Bags of Knowledge initiative, which is giving books to new mothers as they leave the maternity hospitals, to read to their infants," Al Owais told
Khaleej Times.
Meanwhile, the MOHP, is seeking volunteer for its 'reading to hospital patients' initiative. The invite is not just for Emiratis, but any nationality who can visit the sick in the hospital and read to them.
Ministry of Community DevelopmentThe Ministry of Community Development has taken this step a little further, and announced plans to establish a group of volunteers to read to "all those who cannot read".
According to Najla Al Awar, the Minister of Community Development, the volunteers group would target children, hospital patients, special needs and senile persons.
"Reading to Alzheimer patients, for example would lessen their condition by 30 per cent, which is very important since Alzheimer is on the rise in the UAE," said Al Awar.
Ministry of Culture and Knowledge DevelopmentThe Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development's contribution to the national reading strategy will focus on libraries, especially since only two per cent of the population has membership in the national library, as opposed to 60 per cent in Canada, for example.
"In the next few years we will focus on attracting readers of all ages to libraries by developing various programmes for public libraries, modifying their working hours, creating incentives such as reading competitions and establishing coffee shops in libraries," said Afraa Al Sabri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development.
Libraries in malls and books in every mall's coffee shops are also on the agenda, as is increasing the number of books published in the UAE from just 400 annually to 4,000 per year before the 2026.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com