10-year-old Mezna beat over 445,000 pupils in the Emirates…

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President of the UAE has congratulated 10-year-old young schoolgirl, Mezna Najeeb, on winning the national round of the fourth international Arab Reading Challenge.

The win was no mean feat, as Mezna beat over 445, 000 participants from more than 1,412 private and public schools in the UAE.

The reading initiative was launched by Sheikh Mohammed back in 2015 by to encourage one million students across the region to read 50 books in one academic year.

 

Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter, “Congratulations to Mezna Najeeb, my daughter, who won the UAE Arab Reading Challenge among 455,000 participants from more than 1,400 public and private schools in the country”.

“With you, Mezna, and Arab pupils like you, we are optimistic that the future will be more beautiful.”

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3.5 million people took part in the challenge in the first year, with numbers rising to more than 7.4 million pupils in 2016. The event was opened up to Arab expats for the first time last year.

Open to anyone in the MENA region, anyone aged 8 to 18 can take part and are tested on their understanding of the texts they’ve read, during the contest.

 

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Images: Supplied / Facebook