Student Youssef El Zahri crowned champion of the “Arab Reading Challenge” competition at the national level.
Today, Friday, in Rabat, student Youssef El Zahri, from the “Imam Al-Ghazali” high school of the provincial direction of Kenitra, reporting to the Regional Academy of Education and Training of the Rabat- Salé-Kénitra, was crowned champion of the “Arab Reading Challenge” competition at the national level, in its eighth edition.
This was announced during a ceremony chaired by the Minister of National Education, Preschool Education and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, in the presence of the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Morocco, Al-Asri Saïd Ahmed. Al-Dhaheri.
By winning the title of national champion of the “Arab Reading Challenge”, student Youssef El Zahri will represent the Kingdom during the finals of the competition which will be held in Dubai next October.
As for this year’s “outstanding supervisor” prize, contested by four supervisors at the national level, it was awarded to teacher Najat Sharbiqa from the Regional Academy of Education and Training of the Guelmim-Oued Noun region .
In the “People of Determination” competition, first place was won by student Kawtar Al-Qurashi, who continues his studies at the “Tour Hassan” scientific high school, under the Regional Academy of Education and Training of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region, while the “Iqraa” institution under the Regional Academy of Education and Training of the Casablanca-Settat region obtained first place in the “Outstanding Institution” competition.
In his speech on this occasion, Benmoussa declared that “the ministry attaches great importance to anchoring the habit of reading among students, due to the close link between the act of reading and the improvement of their cultural and intellectual levels.
He stressed that the ministry has taken the initiative to develop and implement a series of programs and measures to encourage reading in schools, in particular by adopting an educational model that attaches importance to reading in the process of learning, by programming daily reading activities lasting ten minutes in the primary cycle, integrated into school time, aimed at instilling the habit of reading in students, encouraging their autonomy and personal learning, and to develop their vocabulary taking into account the particularities of the different school levels, as well as to provide educational establishments with a fund of books for this purpose.
The minister also stressed that capitalizing on the positive achievements of the “Arab Reading Challenge”, whether it is the increase in the number of participating students who are passionate about books or the atmosphere of motivation and mobilization educational actors and educational establishments, “will undoubtedly contribute to increasing the reading rate inside and outside the school space, by developing the skills of personal learning, analysis and creative thinking readers, as well as by strengthening their cultural awareness, acquiring knowledge and consolidating their national feeling and civic behavior.
For his part, the executive director of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation, Abdel Karim Sultan Al Ulama, revealed that “more than 600,000 students participated in the eighth edition of the largest Arabic reading challenge” , emphasizing that “reading is the only treasure that remains insufficient no matter how much we collect, the only time that is neither lost nor exhausted, the only journey that knows no end, and the only path where we We cannot go astray.”
He recalled that the “Arab Reading Challenge” competition, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, in September 2015, is an initiative which “is one of dozens of programs and knowledge projects sponsored by His Highness under the aegis of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation.
For his part, student Youssef El Zahri expressed, in a statement to the press, his great joy at having been crowned champion of the “Arab Reading Challenge” competition at the national level, expressing his ambition to win it at the Arabic level.
It should be noted that the “Arab Reading Challenge” project aims to develop the love of reading among the generation of children and young people in the Arab region, and to anchor it as an ingrained habit that strengthens curiosity and passion for knowledge, broadening their horizons and knowledge, which develops their skills in thinking, analysis, criticism and expression.
