30,000 pass Translation Challenge qualifications

Some 30,000 volunteers have passed screening, qualifying for the Translation Challenge final round of qualifications. The Challenge, which is part of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, MBRGI, has received over 50,000 volunteer submissions from 55 countries around the world.

The Director of the Mohammed bin Rashid Arab e-Learning Project, Sara Alnuaimi, said, "We ended the initial evaluation phase on November 8th, with all of the volunteers completing a screening test. A further round of testing is now being applied so that we can identify the final team in order to ensure the highest quality of educational curricula, translation and video production."

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, launched the Translation Challenge in September 2017. The challenge seeks to translate 5,000 world-class educational videos of 11 million words of math and science content, for students in kindergarten to grade 12, in one year.

50 percent of applicants volunteered to translate academic material, and 21 percent volunteered for voiceovers, 12 percent for video editing and 17 percent for media support. 52 percent of applicants held a Bachelor’s Degree, 10 percent held a Diploma, 16 percent had a secondary education, 17 percent had their Master's Degrees and 4 percent had their Ph.Ds.

58 percent of translation qualified volunteers signed up for translating general science topics, followed by math with 16 percent, biology with 13 percent, physics with 12 percent, chemistry with 10 percent and geology with 6 percent.

Teachers accounted for 21 percent of translation volunteers. Young volunteers made up 78 percent of those who made it to the final round of qualifications.

Alnuami commented, "The Translation Challenge has already seen great interaction with many interested and specialised volunteers, specifically from people with higher education Degrees and teachers in the fields of math and science."

The highest number of volunteers, at 21.5 percent, were from Egypt, followed by Algeria with 18 percent, Morocco with 11.6 percent, Iraq with 8.9 percent and the UAE with 6.4 percent.