Sunday 05 / May / 2024
Muscat: Bait Al Zubair Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, announced last February the launch of the third edition of the Bait Al Zubair Competition for School Reading Initiatives, and the dissemination of its guide to all schools in the Sultanate.
The competition seeks to contribute to developing the reading aspect, enriching it, and finding alternatives and solutions to existing educational, administrative, or community problems through the act of reading.
The closing ceremony of the third edition of the Bait Al-Zubair Competition for School Reading Initiatives was held under the patronage of Pro. Dr. Abdullah bin Khamis Ambosaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Education.
The ceremony included a speech by the Children’s Laboratory of Bait Al-Zubair, delivered by the competition supervisor, Fatima Al-Shukri, and a speech by the Ministry of Education delivered by Idris Al-Nabhani, Assistant Director of the Department of Educational Activities in which he praised the efforts made by both parties, stressing the importance of continuing this partnership that is consistent with Oman Vision 2040 in achieving community partnership with educational institutions to build a knowledge society.
The ceremony also included a speech by the jury, presented on behalf of it the committee member Awad Al-Luwaihi, in which he thanked all those who applied to participate in the competition, while praising the great development in the tools and methods adopted by those in charge of the initiatives that submitted to the competition.
The ceremony also included visual presentations about the competition and its stages.
In this edition, in the first place was the “Read to Be” initiative from Ras Madrakah School for Basic Education (1-12) in Al-Wusta Governorate, and received OMR1,000, and in second place was the initiative (Implementing the Nour Al-Bayan Methodology) from the Hudhayfah Bin Al-Yaman School for Basic Education (5 -12) at Al Dhahirah Governorate and won OMR700.
In third place was the initiative (By Reading I Rise) from Kabara School for Basic Education (1-12) at Al Dhahirah Governorate and received OMR600, and in fourth place was the initiative (I am Skilled Reader and Author) from Al-Ahed School for basic education (1-4) at South Al Batinah Governorate and received OMR500.
In fifth place came the initiative (I Read Electronically) from Al-Buraimi School for Basic Education (5-7) at Al Buraimi Governorate and received OMR400.
Both the Journey initiative from Ma’oulabin Shams School for Basic Education, and the Athar initiative by the student Rahaf Al-Alawi from Hajar Umm Ismail School, received incentive prizes and amount of OMR400 for each.
In addition to students, the Bait Al Zubair Competition for School Reading Initiatives opened the way for all employees and those enrolled in public and private schools, as well as administrative and teaching bodies, to participate, and set specific conditions for participation, including that the initiative should not be less than two academic years old on the date of nomination for the competition, and that the maximum number of entries should be only two from each school, and that it consists the creative and innovative aspects in implementing reading initiatives alongside the other conditions included in the competition guide.
Fatima Al-Shukri, the competition supervisor, said: “Unlike previous editions, there were no local committees in the governorates that received entries from the governorate’s schools, sorted and evaluated and then sent to the central committee in the Ministry of Education for the final sorting. Rather, entries were received from all governorates directly in Bait Al-Zubair. The first screening took place last May, then the initial evaluation in June, and finally the final evaluation, which took place one day before the closing ceremony, where the five qualified initiatives were allowed to make a final presentation before the jury.”
Since its inception, the competition was designed to honour and celebrate reading initiatives in the Arabic language and encourage them to compete in the field of reading, whether in the context of implementing the initiative itself, or by pushing them to launch purposeful initiatives in the future that can compete in the upcoming sessions, benefiting from the potential energy of the students and various employees in the school. It also aimed to enhance and encourage the culture of reading and to strengthen the school’s relationship with the local community.
It is worth noting that the Bait Al Zubair Competition for School Reading Initiatives is one of the projects adopted by the Bait Al Zubair Foundation with the aim of raising the level of competitiveness and recognising individual and collective efforts in various cultural fields, in addition to a series of other projects of a competitive nature, such as the Sadiq Jawad Award for Intellectual and Philosophical Studies, the winners in which will be announced next November.
