Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah met with the Secretary-General of the Arab Reading Challenge, Ms. Najla Al Shamsi, on Tuesday. Her Majesty expressed interest in, and support for, the efforts being made to achieve the project’s objectives of increasing awareness of the importance of reading amongst students in the Arab world.

The project, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aims to get more than a million Arab students to read fifty million extra-curricular books every academic year.

Ms. Najla Al Shamsi commended the efforts of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah in the areas of education and childhood, stressing that the Arab Reading Challenge will contribute to improving Arab students’ world ranking in the field of reading.

She added that the project was aimed at students in the Arab world, from different Arab communities throughout the world, from 1st to 12th grade, to make reading a habit and to promote values such as intellectual and cultural diversity, while developing skills such as self-learning and critical thinking, and to promote a sense of patriotism and Arabism throughout the Arab nations.