Reading is a life skill that needs nurturing

The Arab Reading Challenge has affected 3.5m children and done well in encouraging reading across the region

eading is a fundamental part of life that no one should miss. It allows the discovery of new ideas, amusement or entertainment, and builds knowledge and opens the mind. However, it is very disturbing how many children in the Arab world miss out on what should be the simple act of regularly picking up a book and starting to read.

The Saudi-backed Arab Thought Foundation reported in 2012 that the average Arab child reads books for only six minutes a year, compared to 12,000 minutes spent reading by children in the West.

It is all the more shocking that a further one in three Arab children struggle to read or write at all, according to the Arab League. Such low levels of literacy cannot be allowed to continue as it points to a generation growing up with desperately impoverished minds.

This is why it is exciting to see the finals of the Arab Reading Challenge, which was backed by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

This week’s winner and finalists deserve great praise, but it is also crucial that these successful individuals came from a field of 3.65 million children from 30,000 schools in 15 countries across the Arab world.

This vast number of Arab children were involved in the Arab Reading Challenge, and as the challenge continues year after year and the numbers of children continue to accumulate the impact on Arab society will be correspondingly massive.

The UAE is rich with exciting ways in which young people can engage with reading. The Sharjah Book Fair is on this November, and in Dubai the Emirates Festival of Literature is due in March with the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair following in April. These offer extraordinary opportunities to interact with authors, sample their books and enjoy the atmosphere of reading.

Moreover, these headline events are wonderful to promote the idea of reading and the importance of literacy, but there is also vital work going on in schools all over the country where children who are hesitant to read are encouraged and those who have learning difficulties are taught how to overcome them.

And the work does not stop at the school gates: it is also very important that parents nurture their children’s literacy, encourage them to appreciate books and pick them up as often as they can, and so become confident reading citizens of the world.