UAE rs up the love for reading: paper

ABU DHABI 6th December 2015 (WAM) -- The real asset of any advanced nation is its people especially the educated ones and the prosperity and success of the people are measured by the standard of their education. The doctrine of the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan could well form the cornerstone of the UAE's ongoing campaign to instill the habit of reading in the people particularly children.

"To ensure that the love for reading is not kept on the backburner the UAE on Saturday jumpstarted an initiative to make 2016 the Year of Reading" said The Gulf Today in an editorial on Sunday.

"On the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan the UAE Cabinet chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai has approved the declaration of 2016 as 'Reading Year'. The cabinet has issued directives to start preparing an integrated national literacy strategy and a framework to produce a reading generation and establish the UAE as the capital of content culture and knowledge.

"Attachment for books helps considerably in moulding the personality of a child. No one knows this better than Sheikh Mohammed. In September this year he launched the Arab Reading Challenge the largest project in the Arab world which encourages students to read with more than a million students committing to read 50 million extracurricular books every academic year.

"Under this drive a large number of monetary and motivational incentives are offered to participating schools students their families and supervisors from various parts of the Arab world with the value of the overall awards estimated at US$3 million (around AED11 million).

"In keeping with the campaign's August spirit organisations have been pulling out all stops to promote the love of the written word.

"The Sharjah International Book Fair 2015 under the aegis of the Sharjah Book Authority successfully attracted over a million visitors and had over a million titles on display. Many of those who frequented the fair were children who devoured the books with a rare zest.

"Sharjah-based Knowledge without Borders has purchased 80000 books from publishers who participated in the 34th edition of the Sharjah book fair this year to beef up the publishing industry and promote the culture of reading.

The overall aim is instill a love of reading and help Emirati families establish home libraries by providing them with 50 titles across a range of genres. In October the Roads and Transport Authority launched the second edition of Read More Initiative targeting school and university students and even pupils with special needs.

Reading starts at an early age and one effective way of making children learn how to read is by reading bedtime stories to them say experts.

"Sheikh Mohammed's drive like its goal is a humdinger. It is initiatives like these which will expectedly catapult the UAE into a universal big leaguer" concluded the Sharjah-based daily.