Mohammed Ali Al Yamahi from Fujairah was announced as the UAE winner of the Arab Reading Challenge on Monday.
The Emirati pupil came first among 355,000 participants from across the UAE and will represent the country in the global competition later this year.
Al Nouf Elementary School in Sharjah was announced as the best school in the UAE while Mona Shaheen, a teacher in Sharjah, was named as the best teacher in the country.
“We will win and will make sure the flag of the UAE flies high,” said Mohammed, 17, speaking about the final in October.
“I joined this competition to gain experience and to read more books and show people that reading is beautiful.
“From every book, I learn something such as how I can manage my time or how I can be a better pupil.”
Mohammed, a pupil at Hamad bin Abdullah Al Sharqi School in Fujairah, read more than 200 books to prepare for the competition.
“I read all kinds of books that I could find in my school library and learnt a lot about how to deal with people and how I can use languages,” he said.
“I spent 4-5 hours reading every day. In the Covid-19 pandemic, I spent many hours reading and this was the best thing that I could do in my free time.
“My teachers supported me by telling me how I could reach my goals even with the difficulties we faced.”
Asked if he has a target of how many books he would like to read before the main challenge, Mohammad said he has not restricted himself to a number and would like to read as many books as possible.
The Arab Reading Challenge was launched in 2015 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to encourage a million young people to read at least 50 books in a year.
The Arab Reading Challenge has a total prize money of Dh11 million.
The Arab Reading champion is selected based on the pupil's ability to articulate general knowledge, their critical thinking and communication skills, plus the diversity of books they have selected.
Sabiha Khalifa Dalmouk, principal of Al Nouf Elementary School in Sharjah, said her school implemented specific reading activities after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With pupils coming back after distance learning, they missed skills so we concentrated on these skills. We focused on reading in all subjects, not just in Arabic,” said Ms Dalmouk.
Sara Al Nuaimi, director of Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives, said the challenge attracted 22.5 million participants from 44 countries around the world this year.
The challenge usually starts at the beginning of the academic year, around September and continues until the end of the academic year.
Sheikh Mohammed will crown the global winner at a ceremony in Dubai in October.
Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Future Technology, said: “The Arab reading challenge is a very important element of the UAE’s education process and the progression of education within the country.”
In 2021, Jordanian teenager Abdullah Abu Khalaf saw off competition from 21 million school pupils to be crowned Arab Reading Challenge champion and secure a Dh500,000 top prize.
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MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Fixture: Liechtenstein v Italy, Tuesday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match is shown on BeIN Sports
Cracks in the Wall
Ben White, Pluto Press
Bio
Born in Dibba, Sharjah in 1972.
He is the eldest among 11 brothers and sisters.
He was educated in Sharjah schools and is a graduate of UAE University in Al Ain.
He has written poetry for 30 years and has had work published in local newspapers.
He likes all kinds of adventure movies that relate to his work.
His dream is a safe and preserved environment for all humankind.
His favourite book is The Quran, and 'Maze of Innovation and Creativity', written by his brother.
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Aaron Finch, Matt Renshaw, Brendan Doggett, Michael Neser, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (captain), Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Jon Holland, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Gifts exchanged
- King Charles - replica of President Eisenhower Sword
- Queen Camilla - Tiffany & Co vintage 18-carat gold, diamond and ruby flower brooch
- Donald Trump - hand-bound leather book with Declaration of Independence
- Melania Trump - personalised Anya Hindmarch handbag
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
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3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
'Ashkal'
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