Having inspired thousands of children of all ages and nationalities to practise, celebrate and, above all, enjoy the Arabic language together with their families, GEMS Education today acknowledged its first ever network-wide Arabic Language reading campaign a definite success.

A total of more than 33,600 Arabic books were read by GEMS students across the UAE over the past four weeks since the #GEMS_Reads_in_Arabic campaign was kicked off on 18 November. The initiative, which challenged students to read Arabic books in unique locations and situations and to share images and videos on social media, came to an end on 18 December to coincide with World Arabic Language Day.

Deema Al Alami, GEMS Educations Vice President of Arabic and Islamic, said: I am very proud of our teachers who have made more opportunities for our students to enjoy the rich and diverse Arabic literature now accessible on the market. The Arabic language is beautiful, and with the right books and engaging discussions about them, we can all inspire our students and children to read more Arabic and take pride in being able to converse in it.

To drive commitment and make it as easy as possible for students to acess Arabic literature, GEMS partnered with Little Thinking Minds, which provided pupils with free access to the I READ ARABIC app and its digital library of over 700 childrens books in Arabic. Additional support was provided by Kalimat Publishing, which offered GEMS families an special discount on purchases of Arabic childrens books.

In addition, GEMS organised e-storytelling events with three prominent Emirati and Arab childrens book authors, who each took the chance to read one of their stories for the benefit of GEMS students. The authors included Maitha Al-Khayat, Sahar Naja and Rania Zbib Daher, with videos of their readings shared with all GEMS schools.

The success of the inaugural #GEMS_Reads_in_Arabic campaign has inspired and encouraged organisers to roll out an even more ambitious initative next year.