The UAE Ministry of Education's 2015-2021 development plan incorporated a number of approved projects and programmes for promoting Arabic at the country's schools, enabling students to master it and instilling its values in them, said Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education.
Minister Al Hammadi added that the move is in line with the government's keen interest in promoting the language of the Holy Quran, the mother tongue and the carrier language of Islamic civilisation and modern science to the whole world.
The minister made his remarks in a speech read out by Marwan Al Sawaleh, Undersecretary of the ministry, at a celebration organised at University of Sharjah to mark the annual World Arabic Language Day.
These efforts, Minister Al Hamamdi added, are based on President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's statement that 'Arabic is the carrier of our identity', and on the relevant directives and unprecedented initiatives of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, "the UAE takes great interest in our native language and spares no efforts to preserve its stature locally, regionally and internationally." World Arabic Language Day is observed annually on 18 December. The event was established by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2010 to seek to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organisation. December 18 was chosen as the date for the Arabic language as it is the day in 1973 when the UN General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language.
Source: WAM