GEMS Education launches unique campaign in the UAE to celebrate World Arabic Language Day

• Schools placing focus on fun, new ways to enjoy Arabic literature
• Campaign prompts pupils to read Arabic for pleasure out of class
• Month-long event supported by popular Arab and Emirati writers

Dubai, UAE: GEMS Education is launching its first Arabic Language reading campaign across its schools in the UAE to help students and families find fun new ways of enjoying and utilising the language.

The new campaign challenges all its students in the UAE – whether they are native Arabic speakers or not – to read Arabic books in a number of unique locations or situations and then capture the moment on camera and social media.

The initiative will run from 18 November to 18 December, which marks World Arabic Language Day, and seeks to encourage extra focus on Arabic language appreciation throughout the month.

The campaign is being driven by Deema Al Alami, GEMS’ Vice President of Arabic and Islamic. She said: “World Arabic Language Day on 18 December is an important day in our calendar, but the majority of schools around the world are closed at this time and we wanted to find a fresh, lasting way to highlight why Arabic is so important and fun for all our students. Children love creative, exciting ways to learn and this is what we’ve tried to achieve”.

“Our ambition is for all our children, both native and non-native Arabic speakers, to be able to use the language confidently and we have a focus at all our schools to achieve this aim with very talented and dedicated teachers in Arabic. This campaign will augment their efforts in a fun and innovative way that we are sure will capture the imagination of our students and their families.”

The idea has been backed by Little Thinking Minds and Kalimat Group publishers and popular Arabic and Emirati children’s book authors, Maitha Al Khayat, Noura Khoori and Sahar Naja. They will be staging live, virtual readings of their books every week to be shared with GEMS schools.

Ghadeer Abu Shamat, Principal of Al Khaleej National School, said: “I will be encouraging all our students and families to support this campaign. Arabic is part of our identity in the UAE and one of the five most spoken languages in the world with over 420 million native speakers. Master it and you can open up new realms of opportunities around the world.”

* Little Thinking Minds will be responsible for creating a ‘I READ ARABIC’ website for GEMS Education, where all students will get access to their digital library of over 700 children’s books in Arabic for free.

Kalimat Publishing مجموعة كلمات / - is a UAE publishing house, and they will offer all GEMS students an exclusive discount so they can purchase Arabic children’s books during this month