Dubai School Agency launches second phase of cultural activities as part of the National Identity Year
Dubai, UAE, Feb.13, 2008 – test The Dubai School Agency (DSA), an agency of the Knowledge and Human Development in Dubai (KHDA), launched the second phase of its project “My Language My Identity.” The aim of this project is to encourage the culture of reading Arabic publications among school students.
Keeping in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in naming this year as the National Identity Year, DSA successfully completed the pilot project in the cycle one primary schools.
Officials from KHDA, UAE University, Ministry of Education, school principals and teachers attended the inauguration of the project at the Ibda’a Model School – one of the participating schools in phase one.
DSA held a number of two-day workshops in primary schools last August to train around 200 teachers and librarians on methods to support and enrich the curricula using “My Arabic Library” series. These workshops were in cooperation with Scholastic, the world biggest publisher for children’s books. The workshops were followed by an implementation of the ‘My Language My Identity’ project throughout the first semester. On analyzing the results, DSA decided to implement the project in all public schools.
Fatma Al Marri, CEO of the Dubai School Agency, said, “We have started ‘My Language My Identity’ project to revive the culture of reading among students, especially in their native language which is the foundation of their national identity. The first step was to provide books for children that are of a high quality of language and combine entertainment with education. We were specifically interested in Scholastic as the preferred publishing house because besides being the biggest publisher of children’s books, they are reputed for their high quality language, edutainment value and comprehensive approach that includes workshops for teachers and librarians to introduce the latest teaching methods to encourage children to read and to establish a bond with books.”
Al Marri added, “I would like to thank all of those who contributed to the success of phase one - teachers, principals and supervisors. Following the initial success, we are planning to extend this project to include all the first cycle and second cycle schools, up to grade six. We are also adding to the collection new books by Dr. Latifa Al Najar, an associate professor at the UAE University in Al Ain. Her books aim to highlight positive values in an attractive fashion for kids. We will keep adding other books that address topics related to our Arab and Islamic culture.”
My Arabic Library series targets primary school students. It attracts children with the colorful layout that is filled with illustrations. Each library contains around 40 interesting stories with five copies of each book, as well as a teacher’s handbook. The series cover many issues such as math, nature, animals, planets, and family. These books are the preferred choice of several Arab educationalists, have been translated in Arab countries, and are approved by the Ministry of Education in many countries. The books were evaluated by Arabic language supervisors and teachers of the first cycle before they were used in Dubai’s schools.